LEXINGTON, Ky. – Coming off a strong second-place finish at the Nittany Lion Invitational this past weekend, the Penn State women's golf team travels southwest for the 30th annual Bettie Lou Evans Invitational hosted by the University of Kentucky at the Big Blue Golf Course.
LAST TIME OUT
- The Nittany Lions improved their score during each round of last weekends NLI shooting rounds of 8-over (296) and 3-over (291) on Saturday before a final round 1-over (289) on Sunday finishing the tournament 12-over which was 22 strokes better than their finish at the Cougar Classic two weeks earlier.
- Junior Olivia Zambruno (Mt. Pleasant, Pa.) and freshman Mathilde Delavallade (Royan, France) each registered their first career top-10 finish over the weekend tying for eighth in the 72-player field at 3-over (219). Zambruno used rounds of 74, 72 and 73 while Delavallade had three-straight rounds of 73 on the par-72 Penn State Blue Course.
ABOUT THE BETTIE LOU EVANS INVITATIONAL
- The tournament, formerly known as the Wildcat Fall Invitational, began in 1979 and was played every year until a four-year break from 1998 to 2001. There were also one-year breaks in 2007 and 2010 before a five-season gap from 2012 to 2016.
- This season marks the 30th annual event at the University Club of Kentucky's Big Blue Course which has hosted the event each year since 2002. The tournament was previously held at Spring Valley Country Club. Big Blue has been stretched to 6,114 yards for this year's tournament and remains a par-72.
- Kentucky has won the tournament 12 times, including last season by two strokes over Penn State. UK set the 54-hole tournament scoring record with an 858 while Penn State made a third-round charge with an 18-hole record score of 278.
- The 10-under, 278, score is also a Penn State program record for lowest 18-hole team score. The Nittany Lions finished the 2018 tournament 4-under (860) which also marked a program record for lowest 54-hole team total.
- Departed UK senior Leonie Bettel won last season's individual medalist honors with a Bettie Lou 54-hole record of 205. Departed Penn State senior Cara Basso finished two shots back in second with a career-best 9-under (207), the second-lowest 54-hole total in school history.
- The 2019 field consists of 12 additional teams to go along with the host Wildcats;
- The Invitational will be played in an 18-18-18 format with tee times off holes 1 and 10 for the opening two rounds beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, September 27. Sunday's final round will be a shotgun start at 9 a.m.
Live scoring for the event will be available throughout the week and can be found HERE.
THE TEAM
- Penn State's lineup will remain unchanged from its first two tournaments of the fall as Zambruno and Delavallade will join senior classmates Megan McLean (Lebanon, Pa.) and Maddy Herr (New Hope, Pa.) along with sophomore Sarah Willis (Eaton, Ohio) in the starting lineup while senior Ashni Dhruva (Katy, Texas) will compete as an individual.
- Delavallade is leading the team with a 73.33 stroke average through the first six rounds of the season with four 73's and a pair of 74's while McLean and Willis are averaging 73.83 and 74.67, respectively, so far this season.
- McLean has Penn State's lowest two rounds of the fall at this point with a 2-under (70) in the second round at the Cougar Classic and her final round 1-under (71) last weekend during the NLI.
COACHES NOTE
"This golf course [Big Blue] can be very penalizing because there are a lot of peninsula and island greens. You must be sharp with your approach shots and your iron play. If you don't hit the greens it isn't about getting up-and-down, you're probably in the water."
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions have over three weeks off before concluding their 2019 fall season at the Landfall Tradition in Wilmington, N.C. on October 25-27.