ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Navy women's golf returns to Pennsylvania for the second-straight week as the Midshipmen are set to compete in the Nittany Lion Invitational. The 54-hole tournament features shotgun starts on Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m. with the first and second round taking place on Saturday and the final round is set for Sunday.
The event takes place on the Penn State Blue Course, which is a par-72, 6,322-yard course. Akron, Bucknell, Georgetown, High Point, Ohio, Penn State, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Penn and Youngstown State are set to compete against Navy this weekend. The Big Ten pair of Penn State and Rutgers are the only two teams in the field this weekend to finish last season ranked in the top 100 of the GolfStat team rankings.
Navy comes into the weekend after winning its season-opening event at the Bucknell Invitational. The Midshipmen totaled a score of 55-over par 895 to win the tournament and they had four individuals place in the top 10 of the 61-golfer field.
Shannon Gould won her first career tournament after breaking the school record for fewest strokes in a 54-hole tournament with a 7-over par 217 and she became the fourth Navy golfer in program history to win medalist honors. Gould's victory last weekend earned her Patriot League Women's Golfer of the Week accolades.
The pair of
Angelina Chan and
Amelia Root finished tied for fifth overall with matching 12-over par 222s this past weekend.
Katie Um just missed the top five and was tied for seventh at 13-over par 223.
This weekend, Navy is sending six competitors to the Nittany Lion Invitational. Gould leads Navy's scoring five along with Root and Um. Rounding out Navy's lineup are
Christine McDonnell and
Morgan Frazier. The Midshipmen's lineup features all five players with career averages in the 70s with McDonnell leading the way at 75.8, followed by Gould's 77.2 and Frazier's 77.6. Um has a career average of 78.2 and Root's average sits at 78.2.
Tori Smith is also representing Navy as an individual in the tournament field.
Last season, the Midshipmen made their debut at the Nittany Lion Invitational where they finished tied for fifth in the tournament with a 30-over par 894. Navy's 894 is the program record for lowest team score in a 54-hole tournament and the final round of 5-over par 293 set the program record of the lowest team round. In Navy's first appearance at the event, Frazier had set the program record of lowest 54-hole tournament score at 218, which stood until this past weekend. Frazier's 2-over par 218 placed her in a tie for seventh in the 90-person field last year
The team title at the 2018 Nittany Lion Invitational was shared between host Penn State and Washington after the two teams posted even-par 864s for the three rounds. Sarah Willis – who was competing as an individual for the Nittany Lions – won the tournament with an 11-under par 205, which was nine strokes ahead of the field. The Nittany Lions placed five golfers inside the top 10.
