HANAHAN, S.C. – The Penn State women's golf team will travel to the 17th annual Cougar Invitational hosted by the College of Charleston at Yeamans Hall Club this weekend looking to build off the early season success established at their home invitational one week ago.
Penn State had consistency in its game last weekend at the Nittany Lion Invitational using three-straight rounds of red figures to run away from the field for a 12-stroke victory. The Nittany Lions score of 13-under, 851, not only shattered the previous Nittany Lion Invitational team record, but it was also a 54-hole program record.
Penn State will take flight on Saturday and play its practice round on Sunday with the tournament beginning early Monday morning with a 36-hole day followed by a final 18 on Tuesday morning.
"We have another 36-hole day again, so we have to be ready for that challenge," commented head coach Denise St. Pierre. "We need to manage our time and be patient, the team was so good at that aspect at our home tournament and I hope they can carry that into this week."
B1G HONORS FOR DELAVALLADE
- Junior Mathilde Delavallade (Royan, France) carded three-consecutive rounds under-par, registering just four bogeys the entire weekend while adding 14 birdies to secure her first collegiate victory.
- The junior sandwiched a career-low round of 68 (4-under) during the second round between a pair of 69's to finish the weekend at 10-under, 206, the second-lowest 54-hole total in program history.
- Delavallade was honored as the Big Ten Women's Golfer of the Week for her incredible performance. The tournament victory marked her fourth career top-10 finish and her first since her freshman campaign in 2019-20.
HISTORIC OPENING WEEKEND
- Aside from the program record 13-under finish last weekend, Penn State saw many successes on the individual level as well, highlighted by Delavallade's strong weekend.
- Senior Sarah Willis (Eaton, Ohio) posted a career-low 6-under, 66, during the second round of play to tie her personal best and set a new Penn State 18-hole record while finishing the tournament fifth with a 4-under, 212, score. It marked the second-lowest finish of her career and tied for the sixth-best 54-hole score in program history.
- Sophomore Victoria Tip-Aucha (Vienna, Va.) was the third Nittany Lion to register a top-10 finish in the opening tournament of the year with her career-best score of 1-under, 215, good for ninth.
- Junior Isha Dhruva (Katy, Texas) also registered her best collegiate finish in a tie for 11th after moving up 19 spots over the final day while carding a career-low 1-under, 71. Dhruva finished the weekend 3-over.
THE TEAM
- Penn State's starting five for the Cougar Classic will remain untouched from last weekend's tournament. Delavallade, Willis, Tip-Aucha and Dhruva will be joined once again by freshman Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) when they tee it up on Monday morning.
- Only Willis and Delavallade have played the course competitively with Willis finishing tied for 48th in her first collegiate event after carding rounds of 73 and 75 to finish 4-over in a weather shortened 2018 tournament. The following year Willis went 74-79-74=227 and tied for 73rd on the demanding par-72, 6,261-yard course.
- Delavallade went 74-74-73=221 and tied for 47th in her first collegiate event at Yeamans Hall the last time the Cougar Classic was held in the fall of 2019.
COURSE OVERVIEW
- Ranked as the second-best course in South Carolina and the 99th best in the United States by Golf Digest, Yeamans Hall is a difficult par-72, 6,261-yard Seth Raynor designed course. Referred to as "a time capsule in Charleston" the course was built in 1925.
- Don't let the modest course yardage fool you into thinking this is a short course, as several drives must be played into upslopes which afford little forward ball momentum. Nearly half the holes move up and down over 15 feet.
- From top100golfcourses.com: Yeamans Hall enjoys just about the firmest playing conditions of any course on the eastern seaboard of the United States and it is blessed with wide, tree-lined fairways and greens which are a trademark of their designer.
THE FIELD
- This year's field consists of 18 teams, six of which are inside the top-25 of the WGCA Preseason Poll while another four are receiving votes.
- No. 12 Auburn headlines the stacked field consisting of No. 15 Baylor, No. 18 Arkansas, No. 19 Georgia, No. 21 Florida and No. 22 Vanderbilt.
- Michigan State, Tennessee, UCF, and Miami are all receiving votes.
- The Nittany Lions and the host College of Charleston are also joined by Clemson, Furman, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Maryland and NC State to round out the field.
- Penn State enters the weekend No. 72 in the golfstat.com rankings.
"I really want our team to be more focused on playing against the golf course [and not worry about the other teams and what they're doing]," mentioned St. Pierre. "They know the opportunity they have [this weekend]…It's like any other sport when you're playing a ranked team it's always exciting and in our sport we get the chance to play multiple ranked teams all at the same time."
Live scoring for the 17th annual Cougar Classic will be available HERE!
NEXT UP
Penn State will turn and burn when they get back to State College as they tee it up next Monday and Tuesday at the Boston College Intercollegiate in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.