HANAHAN, S.C. – The Penn State women's golf team will travel to the 18th annual Cougar Classic hosted by the College of Charleston at Yeamans Hall Club this week.
Penn State took flight on Saturday and plays its practice round on Sunday with the tournament beginning early Monday morning with a 36-hole day followed by a final 18 on Tuesday.
"I love this time of year, I love the energy that everyone has, there are a lot of reasons to be excited," commented head coach Denise St. Pierre.
NITTANY LION TRIO EARN B1G PRESEASON ACCOLADES
- Senior Sarah Willis (Eaton, Ohio) was named a preseason honoree for the fourth time in her career while senior Mathilde Dellavallade (Royan, France) received her third consecutive preseason mention and classmate Isha Dhruva (Katy, Texas) earned her second-straight preseason accolade.
- Delavallade paced the Nittany Lions during the 2021-22 campaign with a 73.77 stroke average and a pair of top-5 finishes including her individual medalist honors at the Nittany Lion Invitational where she fired three sub-70 rounds leading to a career-best 10-under finish, just one stroke off the tournament record. The Royan, France native, also finished tied for fifth at the Boston College Intercollegiate.
- Willis finished slightly behind Delavallade with a 74.04 stroke average and one top-5 finish also coming at the Nittany Lion invitational last season. She used a Nittany Lion record and career-low round of 6-under, 66, during the second round and finished the weekend fifth.
- Dhruva finished fifth on the team with a 75.90 stroke average and had her best career finish posting 4-under, 212, at the UNF Collegiate finishing the tournament fourth in the 90-player field.
GRITTY PERFORMANCE
- After playing in just a pair of events as an individual during her freshman season in 2021-22, sophomore Michelle Cox (Allentown, Pa.) finished second during team qualifying this fall and has earned her way into the starting lineup this weekend.
"I'm excited for Michelle to be joining our team," mentioned St. Pierre. "When you have a team like ours where we didn't graduate anyone, I think it helps to have a little shakeup. Having someone new inserted into the lineup can give us the spark we need."
THE TEAM
- Delavallade finished first in team qualifying last weekend concluding the seven rounds with a 6-under, 66, on Monday. During the two-week stretch of qualifying, the senior's highest round was a 1-over, 73, and she only had one other round in the 70's.
- She will be joined in the starting lineup by Willis and Cox along with senior Taylor Waller (Canonsburg, Pa.) and sophomore Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.).
- Waller will be making her first Cougar Classic appearance in the starting lineup, but it won't be the first time she has seen the course as she competed as an individual during the 2019 event.
- Penn State finished 13th in the 17-team field last season paced by Willis who finished even par and tied for 24th after back-to-back rounds of 1-under to close the week. Delavallade carded 71-75-73—219 and finished T-36 a season ago.
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, three of which are inside the top-25 of the WGCA Preseason Poll while another four are receiving votes.
- No. 6 Florida State headlines the stacked field consisting of No. 19 Georgia and No. 25 Kentucky while Miami, Ole Miss and Big Ten foes Illinois and Michigan State are receiving votes.
- Along with the Illini and Spartans fellow B1G foe Wisconsin also joins the Nittany Lions in the field this week while UCF, Clemson, East Carolina, Furman, Louisville, UNC, NC State, Tennessee and the host College of Charleston round out the field.
- Penn State enters the weekend No. 95 in the golfstat.com rankings.
The Nittany Lions will be paired with East Carolina and Wisconsin for the first two rounds on Monday with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start. The final round on Tuesday will feature an 8:45 a.m. shotgun.
Live scoring for the 18th annual Cougar Classic will be available HERE!
NEXT UP
Penn State returns to Happy Valley for the 46th annual Nittany Lion Invitational which makes its return to the Penn State Blue Course next weekend.