NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The Fighting Irish women’s golf season continues this weekend at Kentucky’s Bettie Lou Evans Invitational, an event Notre Dame won last season.
The three-day tournament will take place Friday through Sunday at the University Club of Kentucky’s Big Blue Course (par 72, 5,947 yards) in Lexington, Kentucky.
Last season, behind co-medalist Emma Albrecht, Notre Dame won the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational by four strokes.
“We’re excited to head back to the University of Kentucky this weekend,” head coach Susan Holt said. “It is always fun to go back and defend a championship. We also have lots of positive takeaways from last weekend. We had three different players with under par rounds and Emma [Albrecht] and Abby [Heck] finishing the tournament under par was great to see.”
Last season’s win marked the first Fighting Irish victory since capturing the Chip-N Club Invitational in Lincoln, Nebraska (Oct. 6, 2015). The last Notre Dame player to take medalist honors prior to Albrecht’s win was Kristina Nhim, who won the Clover Cup in Mesa, Arizona on March 16, 2014.
“We have five solid players in the lineup that can all go low,” Holt added. “Going back to a course we had success on should have them ready to play and in a positive frame of mind. It comes down to everyone executing a game plan that fits their game. If we can do that collectively for three rounds I like our chances.”
The tournament is entering its 29th season and second consecutive season. The tournament, formerly known as the Wildcat Fall Invitational, began in 1979 and was played every year until a four-year break from 1998 to 2001. There were also one-year breaks in 2007 and 2010 before a five-season gap from 2012 to 2016.
2018 Bettie Lou Evans Invitational
Dates: October 5-7, 2018
Format: 18 holes per day
Tee Times: Round one will begin at 9 a.m. ET on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, the final round will begin at 9 a.m. ET with a shotgun start.
Location: Lexington, Kentucky
Course (Par/Yardage): Big Blue Course (par 72; 5,947 yards)
The Field (12): Akron, Columbia, Eastern Kentucky, East Tennessee State, Indianapolis, Kentucky, Memphis, Middle Tennessee State, Notre Dame, Penn State, Toledo and Western Kentucky.
Notre Dame Lineup: Emma Albrecht (1), Abby Heck (2), Isabella DiLisio (3), Maddie Rose Hamilton (4), Claire Albrecht (5). Mia Ayer will be playing as an individual entrant.
Live Scoring: Golfstat.com
Twitter: @NDwomensGolf
Irish In The Bettie Lou Evans Invitational Records Book
- Kentucky has won the tournament 11 times. Among this year’s participants, Notre Dame won the tournament last season and Memphis claimed the title in 2006.
- UK’s Grace Rose (senior last season) and Notre Dame’s Emma Albrecht (senior this season) tied for last year’s individual championship and set the 54-hole tournament record with scores of 211.
- Notre Dame holds the tournament record 54-hole score of 872 in 2017.
- The 18-hole team record also belongs to Notre Dame, which shot a 284 in the first round of last year’s tournament.
Year In Review (2017-18)
- The Irish returned to NCAA Regional play (Madison) and set the program record for lowest season stroke average (293.50).
- Notre Dame posted top-five finishes at the Minnesota Invitational and the Clover Cup, while winning the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational for their first tournament win in two years.
- The Irish also had a strong showing at the Schooner Fall Classic, finishing tied for sixth on the strength of a final round 278 (-6).
- Emma Albrecht earned co-medalist honors at the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational.
- Maddie Rose Hamilton set the program record by shooting a second-round 65 (-6) at the event. The -6 also tied for the lowest round in program history in relation to par.
Notre Dame Under Holt
- Head Coach Susan Holt has led Notre Dame to 10 NCAA regional appearances in the last 11 seasons, including the first NCAA Championship berth in program history (2011), while lowering the team’s season stroke average by more than 10 strokes since she arrived on the scene in 2006.
- Holt has piloted Notre Dame to four conference titles, 17 total tournament championships and the top 12 single-season stroke averages in the program’s record book, all while guiding Fighting Irish players to 15 medalist honors and 27 all-conference accolades as well as the first two All-America selections in Notre Dame women’s golf history.
- In the classroom, Fighting Irish players under Holt have collected 31 NGCA/WGCA All-Scholar Team citations, 44 conference all-academic team certificates and the first three Academic All-America honors in program history (Ashley Armstrong in 2013, 2014 and 2015).
— ND —