Nov. 4, 2010

Tournament Notes | Golfstat Live Scoring

By Wes Todd
Assistant Media Relations Director

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina will play its fourth and final tournament of the 2010 fall season as it heads to Stanford, Calif., to join the other 11 Southeastern Conference member schools and nine of the 10 members of the Pac-10 Conference for the inaugural Pac-10/SEC Women’s Golf Challenge. The tournament runs Friday through Sunday at the par 71, 6,103-yard Stanford Golf Course.

The Gamecocks are ranked No. 28 in the latest GolfWeek/Sagarin ratings; this week’s Golfstat Head-to-Head Rating places South Carolina at No. 33 in the nation. Carolina carries a record of 29-23-2 against all opponents; the Gamecocks are 5-6 against the teams in this week’s field.

South Carolina will send out a junior, a sophomore and three true freshmen for this week’s Pac-10/SEC Challenge. Leading the way is junior Katie Burnett (Brunswick, Ga.), who has played in every event through her two-plus years in the Garnet and Black. Sophomore Amanda Strang (Jonstorp, Sweden) also continues her streak of never missing an event as she plays in her 16th consecutive tournament. Freshmen Katie Rose Higgins (Charleston, S.C.), Suzie Lee (East Northport, N.Y.) and Samantha Swinehart (Lancaster, Ohio) complete the Gamecock lineup as all three were impressive in their first three collegiate events and have continued to earn their spots through weekly qualifying. This is the third time for South Carolina to use this lineup; these same five played in the Tar Heel Invitational and the Landfall Tradition in October.

The Gamecocks will have plenty of familiarity with more than half of this week’s field as the entire contingent of 12 SEC schools will be in competition. Nine of the 10 Pac-10 schools will also be competing; Arizona State is not fielding a team this fall. But the field with which Carolina is familiar is likely one of the toughest in women’s golf as 17 of the 21 teams are ranked in the GolfWeek Top 50, including seven of the nation’s top 10. LSU and Alabama are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, followed by No. 3 Southern Cal, No. 4 UCLA, No. 7 California, No. 8 Georgia and No. 10 Vanderbilt. Arkansas, Arizona, Tennessee, Florida and Auburn are all in the top 25, and the Gamecocks join with Mississippi, Oregon, Washington and Stanford to round out the top 50.

Carolina will be paired with Oregon, California and Kentucky for Friday’s first round, starting on the No. 10 tee at 10:30 a.m. ET (7:30 a.m. PT). Live scoring will be available through golfstatresults.com.