Sept. 22, 2005
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Fresh off a victory at the season-opening Notre Dame Invitational, the Fighting Irish women’s golf team will tee it up at the Lady Northern Invitational this Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 24 & 25) at the par 72, 6,142-yard Indiana University Championship Golf Course. A field of 12, predominantly made up of Big 10 Conference schools, will battle it out during the 54-hole tournament. The first two rounds will be played on Saturday and the third and final round will take place on Sunday. Competition begins each day with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m.
TOURNAMENT: This will be the second straight year that Notre Dame has competed in the prestigious Lady Northern Invitational. In 2004, the Irish tied for eighth out of the 15-team field at the University of Michigan Golf Course. Current seniors Katie Brophy and Lauren Gebauer led the Irish in the event as they each carded an 11-over par 227 to tie for 17th overall.
FORMAT: Each team’s lineup will be comprised of six golfers, with the lowest four scores for each round counting towards the overall team score. The second round will be played immediately after round one on Saturday. Team pairings for the first two rounds will stay the same and pairings for the third round will be based on results from rounds one and two.
FIELD: Ten of the 12 competing teams hail from the Big Ten Conference. Ohio State is the only member from the league that is not participating in this weekend’s event, while Notre Dame and Illinois State are the only two non-Big Ten squads that will tee it up. The Irish posted a 28-20-1 record versus the Big Ten during the 2004-05 season.
COURSE: Even though the Lady Northern Invitational shifts from Ann Arbor, Mich. to Bloomington, Ind. for this year’s event, the Fighting Irish are no strangers to the Indiana University Championship Golf Course. Notre Dame won the Indiana Invitational at the course last April. The Irish posted a two round total of 620 (+44) to take the crown, while Noriko Nakazaki captured her first career medalist finish by firing a two-over par 146 (71-75).
NOTRE DAME LINEUP: Noriko Nakazaki (Hanover Park, Ill./Hoffman Estates) will once again play from the No. 1 spot in the Irish lineup just as she did at the Notre Dame Invitational, where she took home co-medalist honors. The junior fired rounds of 72, 73 and 78 for a seven-over par 223 total to capture the second medalist finish of her Notre Dame career.
Freshman Lisa Maunu (St. Thomas, Ontario/Parkside Collegiate Institute) fills the No. 2 spot for the Irish. This will be her first event as a member of the Notre Dame scoring lineup. Maunu tied for eighth at the Notre Dame Invitational, while playing as an individual entrant, with rounds of 80, 75 and 79 for an 18-over par 234. That was the second-highest finish for any Irish golfer at the event.
Fighting Irish veteran Katie Brophy (Spokane, Wash./Gonzaga Prep) will tee it up from the third position in the Irish lineup. The senior co-captain shot a 20-over 236 (80-79-77) at the Notre Dame Invitational to finish tied for 14th overall. Brophy carded a 10-over par 154 last year at the Indiana Invitational, which was played at the Indiana University Championship Golf Course.
Senior Lauren Gebauer (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington) will make her first start in the Irish lineup this season as she occupies the fourth spot. As an individual entrant at the Notre Dame Invitational, she carded a 21-over par 237 (80-77-80) to tie for 17th.
Jane Lee (Palos Verdes Estates, Calif./Peninsula) will be No. 5 for the Irish this weekend. The sophomore tied for 23rd at the season-opening Notre Dame Invitational with a 23-over par 239 (81-78-80) total.
Senior co-captain Suzie Hayes (Dublin, Ireland/Loreto College) rounds out the Notre Dame lineup for the weekend. Hayes shot a 238 (79-82-77) at the Notre Dame Invitational, which placed her in a tie for 19th.
IRISH THOUGHTS: Notre Dame head coach Debby King and senior Katie Brophy share their thoughts on the Lady Northern Invitational …
Debby King – head coach …
“The Lady Northern has always been a good tournament for us. It’s mainly a Big Ten tournament, with each Big Ten school taking turns to host the event so it’s never the same. I feel that we are lucky to be invited since it’s a Big Ten event.”
“The two captains, Katie (Brophy) and Suzie (Hayes), keep stressing to the team that we won here last year at the Indiana Invitational. They keep telling the team that we own this course.”
“Michigan State and Michigan are ranked 29th and 30th in the country so they will be tough competition for us since we are ranked 48th. Those two are rivals to us and we’d really like to beat them.”
Katie Brophy – senior …
“We want to score much better than we did last time (at the Notre Dame Invitational). We definitely need to step it up more this weekend. We’ve worked hard this week and we have a much better outlook going into this weekend. We are more positive as a team.”
“We’ve been talking about how we have a good knowledge of the (Indiana) course. We’ve played there every year since I’ve been here and we should know the course better than anyone except for Indiana. I think we have an advantage there because it favors long hitters. The course has some long par-fives.”
“With having played in the Lady Northern last year, we know what it’s all about. We played a lot of these teams all of last year so we are very familiar with them. We are now used to a field this strong, so that kind of makes it easier for us.”
RESULTS: The Lady Northern Invitational can be followed live on Golfstat.com.
NEXT UP: Notre Dame will take to the course next at the Shoot-Out at the Legends in Franklin, Ind. on October 10 and 11.
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