Aug. 20, 2003

The University of South Carolina Gamecocks women’s golf team will open the 2003-04 season in Japan at the prestigious Topy Cup in Tokyo, Japan. Only two American collegiate women’s golf teams were invited to participate in the September 9-11th tournament. Cal State Berkeley will join the Gamecocks and the two schools will compete against four Japanese women’s teams at the Tanagura Country Club.

South Carolina returns to the United States for two more fall tournaments before teeing off the spring season with the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge in Los Angeles in February. The Gamecocks will participate in five spring tournaments before the April SEC Championships.

USC will host the ninth annual Lady Gamecock Classic on the weekend of March 12 through 14th at the University Club in Columbia, South Carolina, with a tournament field of twelve teams expected to challenge for the title.

“Our schedule is really exciting,” said USC head coach Kristi Coggins. “We are one of only two schools in the United States to be invited to participate in The Topy Cup in Japan, as it is the most prestigious invitation in women’s collegiate golf. That is certainly a great reward for the consistency of this golf team over the last few years and I expect our golfers to rise to the challenge to represent our country and our school.

“It will be different to not see Kristy McPherson and Kacy Thompson on the course and not have that great score to count on every single time. I believe that we have the players and the talent to have those scores. With the experience of our upper classmen and the influx of our new young players, I feel that our depth will give us the opportunity to shoot even lower scores.”

The South Carolina women’s golf team capped another successful season on the links in 2002-03 with its eighth appearance in the NCAA Championships under head coach Kristi Coggins. South Carolina finished the 2002-03 campaign ranked 15th in the country by GolfStat, 16th by GolfWorld and 17th by Golfweek/Sagarin. The Gamecocks were led by senior Kristy McPherson who continued setting school and SEC records in her fourth year at USC. The Conway, South Carolina native paced the SEC in stroke average and captured the Lady Boilermaker Classic in April.