Kentucky Women’s Golf Ready for SEC Championship
TAMPA – The University of Kentucky women’s golf team will take on the 16-team conference field at the Southeastern Conference Women’s Golf Championship at The Pelican Golf Club (par 70) in Tampa, Florida, on April 17-21.
Kentucky will tee off in the first round Friday beginning at 9:40 a.m. ET off hole No. 1, paired with Oklahoma and South Carolina.
The course, also the site of the annual The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at the Pelican, will play as a par 70 at 6,254 yards. This is the third straight season the SEC Championship will be held at the Pelican.
Kentucky’s lineup this week features junior Cathryn Brown (72.0) and sophomores C.A. Carter (74.2), Anastasia Hekkonen (73.4), Karlie Campbell (73.3) and Raleygh Simpson (74.8).
It will mark Brown’s third SEC Championship and Hekkonen’s and Campbell’s second SEC Championship. It will be Simpson’s and Carter’s first time at the league meeting.
Last season, Campbell led the team with a 2-over-par 212 for a share of 23rd place. The then-freshmen packed a steady hand to Tampa, putting together an even-par tournament total through 50 holes until she was plagued with three bogeys in her final four holes of the final round.
This season’s SEC Championship will again feature all 16 teams, following the expansion of the league to include Oklahoma and Texas.
The 16 teams will compete in a 54-hole, stroke-play format Friday through Sunday. The top eight teams will advance to match-play quarterfinals Monday morning, then the top four teams will improve to match-play semifinals Monday afternoon. From there, the top two teams will battle for a conference championship Tuesday.
It is the eighth year the league is utilizing both stroke play and match play.
The semifinals on Monday afternoon will be available live digitally on SEC Network+ and the championship match on Tuesday will be televised live on SEC Network at 10 a.m. ET.
The Wildcats enter the postseason with a 291.1 stroke average through 10 events and 28 rounds, while compiling six finishes in the top three in the process. The Cats have turned in 11 team rounds of par-or-better, while the lineup competing this week has compiled 45 individual rounds of par-or-better in 2025-26.
While young, it also is a competitive and deep team, too, with four of the five players in the week’s lineup leading the team in at least two events a piece this season.
This week, the field can expect sunny skies and temperatures in the low-90s in Tampa.
Big Blue Nation can follow along with the stroke play live scoring here: https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/244173/scoring/team.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow the team on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
