Oct. 16, 2011
Notre Dame, Ind. – The Notre Dame women’s golf team travels to Carmel, Ind., this weekend to compete in its third tournament of the fall – The Hoosier Fall Invitational – that will be hosted by the University of Indiana. The 13-team tournament begins on Monday, October 17 with 36 continuous holes of play beginning at 8:30 a.m., on the par-72, 6,030-yard layout at famed Crooked Stick Golf Club. The final 18 holes will be played on Tuesday, October 18 with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. This is Notre Dame’s first appearance in the Midwest this season as the Irish have competed twice this fall – once in Colorado and once in North Carolina. Coach Susan Holt and her squad will look to get back on the right track after finishing 18th at the Tar Heel Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C., where they faced a tourney with 15 of 18 teams ranked in the top 50, including five top-10 squads. This week, the Irish will face a field that features six teams ranked in the top 100 – Illinois (50th), Penn State (71st), Missouri (80th), Nebraska (83rd), Indiana (87th) and Eastern Michigan (89th). Notre Dame comes into the tournament ranked 59th in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings.
TOURNAMENT FACTS: Name: The Hoosier Fall Invitational (hosted by the University of Indiana)
Course: Crooked Stick Golf Club – Carmel, Indiana (Par 72, 6,030 yards)
Field: 13 teams (2011 Golfweek/Sagarin rankings as of Oct. 13): Illinois (50) Notre Dame (59), Penn State (71), Missouri (80), Nebraska (83), Indiana (87), Eastern Michigan (89), Ball State, Gonzaga, Illinois State, Toledo, Western Michigan, Wichita State.
TOURNAMENT UPDATES: Live scoring for the tournament will be available at www.golfstat.com. Results also will be available on the University of Indiana website (www.iuhoosiers.com) each day. Round-by-round recaps and everything you need to know about Notre Dame women’s golf will be available at und.com.
THE COURSE: The Crooked Stick Golf Club has played host to several PGA and LPGA events, including the 1991 PGA Championship, the 1993 U.S. Women’s Open, the 2005 Solheim Cup, the 2007 USGA Women’s Amateur Championship and the 2009 U.S. Senior Open. For the Indiana Fall Invitational, the course will play at 6,030 yards and is a par-72.
WEATHER OUTLOOK: The weather forecast for Carmel, Indiana and the Indiana Fall Invitational looks like this: Monday, Oct. 17 – Partly Cloudy, 63 degrees, 20% chance of rain. Tuesday, Oct. 18 – Showers expected, 52 degrees for the high with 50% chance of rain.
LAST TIME OUT: The Irish traveled to Chapel Hill, N.C., October 7-9, to play in the Tar Heel Invitational at North Carolina’s Finley Golf Club. In their first-ever appearance at the tourney that included 15 of 18 teams ranked in the top 50, Notre Dame shot rounds of 305-305-297 for a 54-hole total of 45-over-par 909 to finish 18th in the 18-team field. Louisiana State won the tourney with an eight-under par team total of 856. Auburn’s Marta Sanz was the individual winner with a nine-under par 207. Senior Becca Huffer (Denver, Colo.) led the Irish contingent with rounds of 75-74-75 for an eight-over par 224 and tied for 50th. Freshmen Ashley Armstrong (Flossmoor, Ill.) and Kelli Oride (Lihue, Hawaii) finished 2-3 for Notre Dame. Armstrong was one stroke behind Huffer with a nine-over par 225 (78-74-73) to tie for 55th and Oride carded a 13-over 229 (77-78-74) to finish 78th. Sophomore Kristina Nhim (Cypress, Calif.) tied for 81st with a 15-over mark of 231 (77-79-75) and senior Kate Allare (Phoenix, Ariz.) rounded out the Irish roster with a 54-hole total of 243 (84-80-79) to finish 94th.
THE COACH: Susan Holt is in her sixth season as the women’s golf coach at Notre Dame and her 22nd as a Division I head coach. She also served as head coach at Purdue University (1990-93) and the University of South Florida (1993-2006). In her first five seasons at Notre Dame, the Irish have won a pair of BIG EAST titles (2008 and 2011), made four NCAA regional appearances (2008, `09, `10, 11) and advanced to the NCAA Championships for the first time last May (2011) where they finished 22nd overall. A two-time BIG EAST coach of the year (2008, 2011), Holt’s teams have turned in the top four team averages during her tenure. In 2010-11, the Irish turned in four, first-place finishes, including the 2011 BIG EAST championship.
IRISH LINEUP: Notre Dame’s five-person lineup includes: Becca Huffer (Sr., Denver, Colo.); Katie Allare (Sr., Phoenix, Ariz.), Kristina Nhim (So., Cypress, Calif.), Ashley Armstrong (Fr., Flossmoor, Ill.) and Kelli Oride (Fr., Lihue, Hawaii). Huffer is a three time all-BIG EAST selection who was second on the team in 2010-11 with a 74.97 stroke average. Her 75.18 average for her career is the second-lowest total in the program’s history. Allare saw action in six tournaments as a junior and had a 78.33 average. As a freshman, Nhim played in 12 tournaments and had a 76.22 average for her rookie year. She finished third at the BIG EAST Tournament last spring. Armstrong and Oride are in their first seasons at Notre Dame and have averages of 76.0 and 76.5 respectively in the first six rounds of their careers.
ONE OF THE BEST: Golfweek Magazine has ranked the Notre Dame women’s golf team’s home course – The Warren Golf Course – as one of the top 15 college golf courses in the nation. To qualify for the Golfweek’s Best Campus Courses list, a course must be part of a school’s recreational life in terms of preferential access for students, faculty and alumni. Last year, Golfweek ranked the Warren Golf Course as the 14th-best college golf course. This year the home course of the Irish moved up two notches to 12th, passing the likes of the University of Michigan Golf Course and Duke University Golf Course. Co-designed by Bill Coore and PGA Tour veteran Ben Crenshaw, the Warren Golf Course opened on May 1, 2000 and has played host to three U.S. Amateur Championship qualifiers, the `05 and `10 men’s NCAA Central Regional, the `11 women’s NCAA Central Regional, three Western Amateur Championship qualifiers, five BIG EAST Conference Men’s Championships and three BIG EAST Women’s Championships.
THE CAPTAIN: Senior Becca Huffer will serve as the team’s captain for the 2011-12 season. A three-time all-BIG EAST selection, Huffer is coming off her best season at Notre Dame as she turned in four, top-10 finishes as a junior, including a career-best second-place finish at the John Kirk/Panther Intercollegiate last spring as she carded a five-under par 211 in leading the Irish to a tournament win. For the season, Huffer’s 74.97 stroke average was second on the team and the second lowest of her career. In 34 career tournaments, covering 100 rounds, the industrial design major owns a 75.14 career stroke average that is second best in the program’s history. During her Notre Dame golf career, Huffer has helped the Irish to a BIG EAST Championship in 2011 and two second-place finishes in 2009 and 2010. The 2009 BIG EAST rookie of the year, she had her best conference finish last season as she finished fourth overall with a seven-over par 223. Huffer has participated in three NCAA Regionals and in 2011 helped Notre Dame to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Championship. As a junior in 2010-11, Huffer helped Notre Dame to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Championships as the team finished fifth at the Central Regional and then 22nd in the NCAA Championships in Bryan, Tex. There, she was Notre Dame’s top finisher with a 72-hole total of eight-over par, 296.
NEW KIDS: Freshmen Ashley Armstrong and Kelli Oride begin their first seasons with the Irish but are no strangers to highly competitive golf. The duo brings impressive credentials to the Irish lineup. Armstrong is a two-time HP Scholastic Junior All-American and qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur this past summer. A top-five finisher in the Illinois Class AA golf championship in all four of her seasons at Homewood-Flossmoor High School, she was third in her senior season (2010). A four-time team MVP, Armstrong capped her summer of 2011 by winning the Women’s Western Amateur Tournament in July. Oride is a three-time state medalist and a two-time runner-up from Hawaii. She qualified as an alternate for the 2011 U.S. Women’s Open Tournament. Oride was ranked 20th in Golfweek’s class of 2011 rankings while Armstrong was ranked 41st.
NEXT FOR THE IRISH: Notre Dame closes out the fall schedule Friday through Sunday, Oct. 28-30 when the Irish play at the Landfall Tradition in Wilmington, N.C. The tournament, hosted by the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, will be played at the Country Club of Landfall. Notre Dame finished sixth in a field of 18 last season at the Landfall Tradition and was led by Becca Huffer’s two-over par 218 that tied gave her a sixth-place finish as an individual.