April 29, 2003

The 17th-ranked South Carolina women’s golf team received its 10th postseason bid Monday to participate in the NCAA East Regional on May 8-10 at the Par 71, 6,114-Yard, Salem Glenn Country Club in Clemmons, N.C.

The Gamecocks received the seventh seed with the following schools rounding out the 21-team field (in order of seeding): Duke, Arizona, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Georgia, South Carolina, Tulane, North Carolina, Florida State, South Florida, East Carolina, Furman, UNC Wilmington, NC State, Mississippi State, Penn State, Mississippi, Western Carolina, Georgia State and St. Francis.

The regional will be a three-day, 54-hole tournament with 18 holes played each day. The top eight teams and top two individuals (not on one of those eight teams) advance on to the NCAA Championships to be played May 20-23 at the Kampen Golf Course West Lafayette, Indiana.

South Carolina enters the NCAA Regional after a fourth-place finish at the 2003 Golf Championship in Lexington, Kentucky. Three-time All-SEC selection Kristy McPherson leads the Gamecocks with a stroke average of 73.42 and the senior from Conway, South Carolina, has finished in the Top 20 in eight events this year, including a third-place outing at the SEC’s.

Returning four of five golfers from last year’s NCAA team, the Gamecocks finished sixth at the NCAA East Regional in Baton Rouge, Lousiana and was one of 24 teams to advance to the NCAA Championships in Auburn, Washington.