May 3, 2011

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NCAA Regional Notes | Live Scoring

By Wes Todd
Assistant Media Relations Director

COLUMBIA, S.C. – At 2,866 miles, South Carolina will travel the farthest distance of any of the 72 teams competing in the 2011 NCAA Women’s Golf Championship as the Gamecocks head to Auburn, Wash., for the NCAA West Regional. The event gets underway Thursday and runs through Saturday at Washington National Golf Club, the home course of the University of Washington.

It will be a weekend of firsts for the South Carolina women’s golf program. It will be the first time in 18 trips to the NCAA postseason that the team has competed in a West Regional; all previous postseason appearances came in the East Regional. This will also mark the first time that South Carolina enters as a defending regional champion.

Last season, the Gamecocks made up a five-shot deficit on the final day and prevailed in a five-way battle with Duke, Tennessee, Auburn and Pepperdine to take the championship at the NCAA East Regional in Greenville, N.C., posting a three-day total of 864 (E) to win by two shots over Tennessee. Then-sophomore Katie Burnett was the tournament medalist, shooting 67-72-71=210 (-6) to earn her first collegiate tournament title.

The Gamecocks will be hoping for another first. With the win in the 2010 regional, 10th-seeded South Carolina became the lowest seed in NCAA Tournament history to take the team title at a regional. This year, the Gamecocks are seeded 12th and will look to make history once again.

Burnett, a junior from Brunswick, Ga., returns to lead the team into the postseason for the third time. Along with her medalist honors last season, she tied for 34th as a freshman at the 2009 East Regional in Gainesville, Fla. Burnett enters the postseason with a team-best 74.46 scoring average and a pair of top-10 finishes this season.

Joining Burnett is sophomore Amanda Strang (Jonstorp, Sweden), who makes her second trip to the NCAA postseason and appears in her 22nd consecutive event. Her last competitive round was her best as a Gamecock, a 3-under-par 69 in the final round of the SEC Championship. She tied for 39th at last year’s NCAA Regional

Three true freshmen will experience their first taste of the NCAA Tournament as Samantha Swinehart (Lancaster, Ohio), Suzie Lee (East Northport, N.Y.) and Katie Rose Higgins (Charleston, S.C.) round out the lineup. Swinehart leads the team with three top-20 finishes this year, and Higgins has played in every event this season as well. Lee missed two tournaments in the early spring with a wrist injury, but is back to full strength as she carries the team’s second-best scoring average (75.29). Lee and Swinehart were both named to the SEC All-Freshman Team last week.

A total of 24 teams and six individuals will compete this week for eight team selections and two individual bids to the NCAA Championship, which runs May 18-21 in College Station, Texas.

Southern California enters the postseason as the nation’s top-ranked team, and the Trojans headline the field with three of the nation’s top four players. Three other Pac-10 teams will play close to home, including No. 9 Arizona, No. 33 Oregon and No. 39 Washington, the tournament host. The Gamecocks, ranked No. 36 in the nation, will join SEC bretheren No. 11 Tennessee and No. 17 Georgia in the West Regional. South Carolina has faced 11 of the other 23 teams in the field, compiling a 6-18 record this season. Carolina has wins this season against Denver, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UTSA and Washington; the Gamecocks have not faced Pepperdine, Iowa State, UC Davis, Tulsa, San Diego State, BYU, New Mexico, Portland State, NMSU, San Jose State, Oral Roberts or UTEP this year.

Washington National Golf Club will play to par 72, 6,321 yards for this week’s tournament. The course, located about 30 miles south of the University of Washington’s Seattle campus, has previously played host to the 2002 NCAA Women’s Championship and the 2006 NCAA West Regional. South Carolina competed in the 2002 NCAA Championship, turning in a 23rd-place finish; current LPGA star Kristy McPherson led the way with a tie for 55th place. It will be the Gamecocks’ second trip to the West Coast this season; all 12 SEC teams wrapped up the fall season with the Pac-10/SEC Challenge at Stanford, Calif., in November.

The team will depart Columbia on Tuesday with a practice round slated for 10:32 a.m. Wednesday. Tournament play begins at 8 a.m. Pacific (11 a.m. Eastern) on Thursday with the Gamecocks starting on the No. 10 tee, paired with Oklahoma and Oregon. Live scoring will be available through golfstat.com, and fans can receive periodic updates throughout the round by following @GamecockWGolf on Twitter.