June 12, 2017

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina women’s golfers Ainhoa Olarra, Marion Veysseyre and Ana Pelaez are set to compete in the 114th Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship this week in South Wales. The five-day event, which will take place the Pyle & Kenfig Golf Club, gets underway Tuesday and features 36 holes of stroke play and six rounds of match play.

This year’s Ladies’ British Open Amateur will be contested by 144 competitors from 24 countries. Thirty-three players listed in the Top 100 of the World Amateur Golf Ranking will be in action, including 20^th-ranked Pelaez. The winner of the Ladies’ British Open Amateur will earn a place in next month’s U.S. Women’s Open and the Ricoh Women’s British Open, which gets underway in August.

Following 18 holes of stroke play on Tuesday and Wednesday, the top 64 players will advance to match play. The first two match-play rounds will take place on Thursday before the third round and quarterfinals get underway on Friday. The semifinals and championship match are set for Saturday.

Olarra, who reached match play at the Ladies’ British Open Amateur last year, posted five top-10 finishes this past season as a junior. The San Sebastian, Spain, native earned WGCA All-America Honorable Mention accolades after carding 13 rounds of par or better and finishing with a 72.71 stroke average, the fourth-lowest single-season mark in program history.

Veysseyre, a native of LaChapelle-Auzac, France, also advanced to match play at the Ladies’ British Open Amateur last spring. The rising junior ranked fourth on the team in scoring average during Carolina’s 2016-17 campaign and opened the spring season with three-straight top-20 showings.

Pelaez made history in her first season at Carolina this past year, setting a freshman program record with a 73.12 stroke average. The Malaga, Spain, native tallied her first collegiate victory at the 2017 NCAA Columbus Regional after totaling a 216 (E). Her victory marked the fourth top-15 finish of the spring for Pelaez, who fired the lowest 54-hole mark (208, -8) ever by a Gamecock freshman at the 2017 FSU Match-Up en route to runner-up honors.

Live scoring of the Ladies’ British Open Amateur can be found Here, and fans can also follow South Carolina women’s golf on Twitter (@GamecockWGolf) for updates throughout the tournament.