HANAHAN, S.C. – The Penn State women's golf team will travel to the 19th 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.
NITTANY LION TRIO EARN B1G PRESEASON ACCOLADES
- Senior Mathilde Dellavallade (Royan, France) received her fourth consecutive preseason mention while junior classmates Michelle Cox (Allentown, Pa.) and Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) were honored for the first time in their careers.
- Delavallade set a single season scoring record for the Nittany Lions last season finishing the year with a 72.60 stroke average over 35 rounds of competition. The Royan, France native was also selected as an individual to compete in the NCAA Athens Regional. Delavallade used a Penn State 18-hole scoring record of 7-under, 64, to finish runner-up at the 2022 Cougar Classic and had five top-10 finishes throughout the year.
- Cox had her best showing of the year at the inaugural National Golf Invitational where she finished runner-up with a career-best 3-under, 213. Cox competed in each event last season posting a pair of top-five finishes.
- Nienhaus has competed in all 23 events since donning the Blue & White and had her best finish a season ago in the Nittany Lion Invitational where she tied for 11th with a 4-over, 220.
BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA
- This week will be the first time in 38 season's that the Nittany Lions will play a tournament without Denise St. Pierre on the grounds after the longtime head coach announced her retirement last spring. Kristen Simpson is set to make her head coaching debut at the Cougar Classic.
- This season marks the first for Simpson as a head coach after having spent time as an assistant coach at Old Dominion (2011-14) and Maryland (2014-18), served as the associate head coach at North Carolina (2018-21) and was most recently the assistant coach at Wisconsin since July 2021.
- The 2023-24 campaign represents a return to the Big Ten for Simspon after serving as assistant coach at Maryland for four seasons helping coach the Terrapins to a second-place finish in the 2018 Big Ten Championships in her final season in College Park.
THE TEAM
- Delavallade finished first in team qualifying over the past few weeks, however, she sustained an injury that will keep her out of the lineup for an extended period of time this fall. Both Delavallade and Simpson are optimistic she will be able to return to the lineup at some point in October.
- Cox and Nienhaus return to the starting lineup in year three to lead the way for Penn State into the fall season while this week's starting five features three new faces to the Penn State lineup with junior Jami Morris (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) and sophomore Myranda Quinton (Burlington, Ontario) making their starting five debuts joining graduate transfer Carlota Garcia (Salamanca, Spain) who is making her Nittany Lion debut after transferring from South Alabama.
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 17 teams, five of which are inside the top-25 of the WGCA Preseason Poll while another three are receiving votes.
- Fourth-ranked LSU paces the field while Ole Miss (No. 16), Georgia (No. 21), Florida (No. 24) and Clemson (No. 25) are each ranked to open the 2023 season. UCF, Kentucky and Big Ten foe Michigan State are each receiving votes in the initial poll.
- Along with the Spartans fellow B1G foes Illinois, Maryland and Wisconsin also join the Nittany Lions in the field this week while Furman, Miami, NC State, Tennessee and the host College of Charleston round out the field.
The Nittany Lions will be paired with Furman 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 19th annual Cougar Classic will be available HERE!
NEXT UP
Penn State returns to Happy Valley for the 47th annual Nittany Lion Invitational next weekend.