June 27, 2011

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Suzie Lee and Katie Rose Higgins, a pair of rising sophomores on the South Carolina women’s golf team, are headed to Bandon, Ore., for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship, which begins Monday at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.

Lee will tee off at 8:40 a.m. PT (11:40 a.m. ET) on the Old Macdonald course; Higgins is set for a 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET) start. In Tuesday’s second round, Higgins will start at 9 a.m. PT (noon ET) on the Bandon Trails course, while Lee will tee off at 1:40 p.m. PT (4:40 p.m. ET).

This year’s USWAPL is being run in conjunction with the men’s PubLinks at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort. The women play Old Macdonald on Monday and Bandon Trails on Tuesday; the men will play the opposite rotation.

Lee earned her way into the championship for the second straight year by taking medalist honors with a 73 at a sectional qualifier at Laurel Hill Golf Club in Lorton, Va. It was her second straight year to medal in the Lorton qualifier; at the 2010 USWAPL, Lee advanced to the first round of match play.

Higgins will play in the PubLinks for the first time after tying for medalist honors at Ironwood Golf Club in the Greenville, N.C., sectional qualifier. She earned one of four spots from that qualifying round with an even-par 72.

The U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship is open to women amateur golfers who, since Jan. 1, 2011, have been bona fide public course players and have not held privileges at any course that does not extend playing privileges to the general public, or privileges of any private club maintaining its own course and have a USGA Handicap Index not exceeding 18.4. A “bona fide public course player” may hold incidental privileges of a course not open to the public when such privileges are provided by an educational institution at which she is a student.

Live scoring is available through uswapl.org.