PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Penn State women's golf team will have a home state advantage for the second-consecutive year at this weekend's Big Ten Championships when the Nittany Lions arrive at Fox Chapel Golf Club just a mere two and a half hours from University Park.
This year's B1G Championship will return to Pittsburgh for a second-straight season after the four previous championships were contested in Maineville, Ohio at the TPC River's Bend course.
The Nittany Lions finished 10th last year, their highest finish since 2014 and their fourth-best finish in program history. Then-freshman Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) was Penn State's best finisher in a tie for 33rd while then-junior Mathilde Delavallade (Royan, France) finished tied for 36th.
The format of the championship is 54 holes and is scored by a play six count four, so each team will have six players and the top four scores from each round will count toward the team total. Each round will feature split tees with tee times beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday and 8:00 a.m. on Sunday.
The Nittany Lions will open the championship on Friday morning with the final six tee times off hole nine beginning at 9:33 a.m. through 10:18 a.m.
All 14 Big Ten universities will be represented this week led by No. 15 Northwestern and No. 24 Ohio State while three other schools; Michigan State (No. 32), Maryland (No. 33) and Michigan (No. 43) are each ranked inside the GolfStat top-50.
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Rutgers, Purdue, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin join the Nittany Lions to round of the field of 14.
THE COURSE
- Fox Chapel Golf Club, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sits just 141 miles from Happy Valley and recently underwent a restoration in 2020. The restoration included building 97 new bunkers to shapes as seen on the original 1923 course. Sand lines, mowing lines, green shapes, and fairway widths were also restored to architect Seth Raynor's original design. Some signature greens were restored while 12 new forward tee boxes were added and several back tees were extended even further to lengthen the course, which will play as a par-71, 6,045-yard layout this weekend.
- The course is consistently ranked among the Top 100 Best Classic Courses by Golfweek Magazine and has been named a top-10 course in the state of Pennsylvania by LINKS Magazine and Golf Digest. Fox Chapel is also rated as one of the 100 Most Prestigious Golf Clubs in the world by LINKS Magazine.
Live scoring for the duration of the tournament will be available HERE.
THE TEAM
- The Nittany Lions lineup will feature the same six competitors featured all spring as Nienhaus and Delavallade are joined by senior's Sarah Willis (Eaton, Ohio), Taylor Waller (Canonsburg, Pa.) and Isha Dhruva (Katy, Texas) along with sophomore Michelle Cox (Allentown, Pa.).
- Delavallade, Willis, Cox and Nienhaus have each appeared in all 10 events so far this season with Delavallade's 71.86 stroke average and two three-5 finishes pacing the team. Willis ranks second on the team with a 72.72 stroke average and a pair of top-5 finishes. Dhurva has appeared in nine events this season with a 73.58 stroke average while Waller has competed in eight of 10 tournaments throughout the year.
COMING IN HOT
- Penn State has a lot of momentum entering the weekend with five-straight top-10 finishes this spring with three top-5 finishes including back-to-back at the Briar's Creek Invitational in March (T-4th) and the Lady Buckeye last weekend (3rd).
- As a team Penn State is averaging 290.93 per 18-hole round with seven top-10 finishes, five of which have been in the top-five including this past weekend in Columbus. The Nittany Lions stroke average is more than six full strokes better than a season ago and is currently the lowest all-time in the history of the program at this point in the season.
- Last weekend in Columbus, Sarah Willis also set a new program record beginning the tournament with a 9-under, 135, over the opening 36 holes. Her 4-under, 212, finish tied with teammate Mathilde Delavallade for fourth place marking the fifth career top-5 finish for each. For Delavallade it was her third of the season and for Willis her second.
- Delavallade's current stroke average of 72.72 is the lowest in program history while Willis' 73.58 is good for sixth. Cara Basso '19 is the only other Nittany Lion to finish the season with a sub-73 stroke average as she concluded her senior year in 2018-19 with a program-best 72.89 stroke average and qualified for the NCAA Regionals as an individual.