April 17, 2008

SEC Championship Central | South Carolina Notes in PDF Format

The South Carolina Lineup
The Gamecocks bring a lineup to the 2008 SEC Championship that is much the same as last year’s group, which finished fourth in the event. The only person head coach Kalen Anderson is missing from the 2007 fivesome is Jenna Pearson, that season’s second-team All-SEC senior leader. The 2008 edition features three seniors – Blythe Worley, Whitney Simons and Camila Mori – along with sophomore standout Bénédicte Toumpsin and sophomore Taylor Barrett, the lone Gamecock making her SEC debut. Simons is the only member of the senior class to compete in the SEC Championship in each of her four seasons on the team. Worley has played in the last two league events, while Mori and Toumpsin made their debuts in 2007.

Head Coach Kalen Anderson
South Carolina named Kalen Anderson women’s golf head coach in January 2008 following the resignation of 13-year head coach Kristi Coggins. A three-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection at Duke, Anderson helped the program to its first national championship in 1999 and earned NGCA second-team All-America status in 2000. After graduating in 2001, she played four years on the FUTURES Tour before returning to her alma mater as an assistant coach for two seasons.

From the Head Coach
“After playing three back-to-back tournaments, it has been nice to get in some solid short game practice throughout the past two weeks. The entire team has been working very hard, and we are entering the SEC Championship well prepared and excited to compete for the conference championship.”

Short Backswing
A few notes about each player’s season and SEC Championship results.

• Sophomore Bénédicte Toumpsin has three top-five finishes to her credit this season and is looking to improve on her top-25 finish in the 2007 SEC Championship.
• Senior Blythe Worley is second on the team with a career-best 76.71 stroke average after finishing the 2006-07 season with a 10th-place showing at the SEC Championship and claiming 36th place at the NCAA East Regional with a career-best total of 218. She made her SEC Championship debut in 2006 when she finished 41st.
• Senior Whitney Simons is set to compete in her fourth SEC Championship, the lone Gamecock to achieve that status. She enjoyed her best league tournament in 2005 when she finished 12th as a freshman. Simons went on to finish 16th in the 2006 event.
• Sophomore Taylor Barrett qualified for three of the team’s four spring events and has a 78.40 average this season.
• Senior Camila Mori is back for her second SEC Championship after claiming 18th place last season. Prior to transferring to South Carolina, she finished fifth in the Atlantic Sun Championship while competing for Campbell University.

SEC Teams Throughout Top 25
Looking at the three national rankings for women’s golf, the Southeastern Conference boasts as many as eight teams ranked in the top 25. The GolfWeek/Sagarin Rankings, the Golf World/NGCA Coaches Poll and the GolfStat Head-to-Head Standings all include six SEC teams – Florida, Georgia, Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee and LSU – among their top 25. The Coaches Poll also includes Arkansas, which GolfStat lists as well, and Vanderbilt.

Gamecocks Against the Field
South Carolina has matched up against at least four SEC teams in every tournament this season with Georgia’s Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic fielding eight league teams. The Gamecocks have winning records against three of their SEC opponents, finishing ahead of Kentucky in all five tournaments they shared. South Carolina topped Mississippi State in three events and out-paced Vanderbilt in two of three shared tournaments. The Gamecocks finished ahead of Tennessee and Georgia each in just one of five events.

Molto Bene
South Carolina’s Bénédicte Toumpsin has followed up her outstanding freshman campaign with a solid sophomore effort. She currently ranks 46th in the nation according to GolfStat’s Cup standings and is 10th in the SEC in stroke average at 74.33. She played especially well early in the spring when she posted consecutive top-five finishes at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic and the LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic. The first of those two events had her in her season-best third place after shooting a career-low 214 (-2). The score featured a career-best 68 in the second round.

Back to Winning Ways
The Gamecocks have won one SEC Championship since joining the league for the 1991-92 season. South Carolina shot a school-record 861 to win the 2002 tournament at the UGA Golf Course in Athens. Four players finished among the top 20 individually with then-junior Kristy McPherson winning her second-straight SEC individual title. Since then, the Gamecocks have finished no higher than fourth at the league tournament, which they achieved in both 2003 and 2007. Jenna Pearson’s fifth-place showing in 2007 was the best finish by a Carolina golfer since McPherson ended her career with a third-place outing in 2003.