MELBOURNE, Fla. – The Penn State women's golf team returns to the Sunshine State for the Columbia Classic beginning on Saturday morning. The three-day event will run through Monday afternoon.
This marks the second-straight season the Nittany Lions will compete in the event hosted by Columbia University at the Duran Golf Club in Melbourne, Florida. Penn State finished fourth in the 14-Team field last year.
Saturday and Sunday's rounds will feature split tee times off the front and back beginning at 8:00 a.m. while Monday's final round will be an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start.
Live scoring for the duration of the tournament will be available HERE.
THE COURSE
- Duran Golf Club features rolling terrain, characteristic of a links-style layout, accompanied by mild mounding around the large, undulating greens; sparkling lakes and ponds; sweeping doglegs; native landscaping; grasses and palm trees.
- Located near the Atlantic Ocean, the coastal breezes can add great variety to your game. The par fives can be stout three-shot tests or tempting "go-in-two" holes.
- Duran Golf Club is a standard par-72 course playing at 6,303 yards for the week. The front side opens and closes with par fives with the course as a whole featuring 10 par fours along with a quartet of par fives and threes making up the 18 holes.
THE TEAM
- Penn State's lineup remains consistent from the last week's UCF Challenge as graduate students Mathilde Delavallade (Royan, France) and Carlota Garcia (Salamanca, Spain) are joined by junior classmates Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) and Michelle Cox (Allentown, Pa.) with senior Victoria Tip-Aucha slotting into the final spot in the lineup and junior Jami Morris (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) competing as an individual.
- The Nittany Lions improved each round at the UCF Challenge after getting off to a sluggish start with a 14-over, 302, in the opening round on Saturday they shaved seven strokes during Sunday's second round (7-over, 295) before Monday's final round score of 2-under, 288.
- Penn State's 19-over score along with the 2-under final round were both season bests as the final round 286 marked the first under par round for the Nittany Lions as a team this season.
- Cox paces the team with a 71.87 stroke average and led the Nittany Lions at the UCF Challenge last week with a 2-over, 218, finish. Cox has a pair of top-10 finishes this season.
- Nienhaus isn't far behind with a 72.80 stroke average this season and finished last week 5-over, 221.
OPPONENTS
- Penn State is the lone Big Ten team in the field this week as they are joined by the hosts Columbia University along with Albany, Cal State Fullerton, Dartmouth, Eastern Kentucky, Emory, JMU, Kennesaw State, Old Dominion, Princeton, Richmond, Seton Hall, St. John's, Yale and Youngstown State in the 16-team field.
NEXT UP
Penn State has three weeks off before resuming play with a Spring Break trip to the Juli Inkster Invitational in San Jose, California on March 4-5 before wrapping up the trip in Charleston, South Carolina at the Briar's Creek Invitational on March 11-12.