Kentucky Women’s Golf’s Bettie Lou Evans Invitational at the U-Club Begins Monday
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky women’s golf team is set to host the 32nd iteration of the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational at the University Club of Kentucky on the Big Blue golf course (par 72, 6,242 yards) in Lexington, Kentucky, on Monday and Tuesday.
Big Blue Nation is encouraged to walk the golf course with the Wildcats. The tournament is open to the public with free parking and free admission.
The field will play in a 36-hole shotgun format on Monday beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET, with UK starting on hole Nos. 1 through 3. The field will play the final round, also in a shotgun format, on Tuesday beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Twelve teams will be competing in the team division, while 75 players will try for an individual title. Those teams include Kentucky, Indiana, California-Berkley, Akron, EKU, Cincinnati, Jacksonville State, Lipscomb, Penn State, South Alabama, East Carolina, Richmond and Belmont.
Kentucky will be paired with Indiana and Cal-Berkley for the first and second rounds Monday.
Six UK players will compete in the home tournament, with the lineup including Cathryn Brown, C.A. Carter, Lucy Cook, Isabella Johnson and Brooke Oberparleiter, and Samantha Paradise competing as individual.
Brown, an Eddyville, Kentucky, native, is coming off three consecutive rounds of par-or-better in the season opener at the Folds of Honor Collegiate to finish in the top 10. Carter, a Lexington, Kentucky, native playing right in front of her, recently earned a career-best 63 (-9) on Big Blue.
The Bettie Lou Evans Invitational tournament field brings two friends of the program, including current Akron head coach and former UK assistant coach and alumna Jenny King and current Indiana head coach and former UK assistant coach Brian May.
The Wildcats have won three of the last five iterations of the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational (2011, 2018, 2019) and 13 total since it began in 1979. In 2018, the Cats set the tournament record with an 858 (-6), while alumna Leonie Bettel set the individual record with a 205 (-11).
This season, the program’s alumni and friends weekend coincided with the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational, giving alumni and friends the opportunity to experience the tournament and honor her legacy since the passing of Hall of Famer Bettie Lou Evans. Evans, the Wildcats’ women’s golf coach from 1979 to 2001 and Director of Golf Operations for the men’s and women’s programs for the next 17 years, died Sept. 26, 2023.
The field and fans can expect cool mornings and temperatures peaking in the mid-to-high 70s all week, with a chance of rain forecasted for the area.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow the team on X, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
