ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Navy women's golf team starts its spring slate on Sunday at Kiawah Island Classic at the Kiawah Island Golf Course in South Carolina.
The tournament is a three-day, 54-hole tournament that will run from Sunday through Tuesday. The tournament will take place on the resort's Osprey Point (par 72, 5,964 yards) and Oak Point (par 72, 5,941 yards) courses. The Kiawah Island Golf Resort has five courses and the Ocean Course played host to the 2012 PGA Championship and the event will return to the Ocean Course in 2021.
A total of 49 teams are set to compete in the tournament including Patriot League programs Boston University, Bucknell, Lehigh and Richmond. College of Charleston is set to host what has been tabbed as the largest collegiate golf tournament in the country.
Coming into the spring, the Midshipmen finished inside the top 10 in each of their five fall tournaments. Navy also finished fifth at the Nittany Lion Invitational and third at the Lehigh Invitational to conclude the fall.
Morgan Frazier led the Midshipmen in the fall with an average of 75.0 in five events. The junior captain also posted two top-10 finishes and a top-five finish.
Christine McDonnell was just behind Frazier with a 75.8 average this fall. She posted four of Navy's six rounds at or below par so far this season.
As a team, the Midshipmen set a new program record for lowest team round after firing a 5-over par 293 during the third round of the Nittany Lion Invitational. At the same event, Navy notched a program-best for a 54-hole tournament score with a 30-over par 894. The following tournament in the fall also featured the Midshipmen setting a new program record for lowest 36-hole tournament score at 33-over par 609.
So far this season, Navy has six different golfers with averages under 80 this year. Navy's freshmen trio of
Tori Smith (78.3),
Shannon Gould (79.1) and
Amelia Root (79.6) have each posted marks below 80 during their first collegiate season.
Katie Um has the third-best average on the team with a 77.6 average in 10 rounds of golf this year.
The 2019 edition of the Kiawah Island Classic features four teams ranked inside the top 100 of the
GolfStatteam rankings (No. 71 North Florida, No. 77 Coastal Carolina, No. 80 South Florida and No. 83 Tulsa). Host College of Charleston is the only team ranked in the top 50 and comes in ranked 44th overall.
The host Cougars will look to defend their event title after finishing with an 8-over par 872 and last year's runner-up Murray State is also back in the field at this year's event. After finishing in a three-way tie for medalist honors at last year's event, Lucila Puente Rodriguez de Austria of Murray State is also back in the field this season with the Racers.
Sunday and Monday will feature two waves, both starting in a shotgun start. The morning waves on both days begin at 8:45 a.m. with the afternoon wave set to begin at 1:30 p.m. The final round on Tuesday starts at 8:45 a.m. with the top 24 teams playing on Osprey Point and the remaining 24 teams playing on Oak Point.
