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Women's Golf Prepared for 2024 Nittany Lion Invitational

The Penn State women's golf team is looking to regain their Nittany Lion Invitational Crown this weekend at the Penn State Blue Course.

Author John Hanna

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women's golf team is looking to regain their Nittany Lion Invitational Crown this weekend at the Penn State Blue Course.

The Invitational will be held Saturday and Sunday with shotgun starts slated for 9 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., respectively.

Live scoring for the weekend can be found HERE.

TRIO NAMED B1G PLAYERS TO WATCH

Senior classmates Michelle Cox (Allentown, Pa.) and Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) along with freshman Jiratchaya Jiratthitinun (Bangkok, Thailand) were honored by the Big Ten Conference earlier this week as players to watch.

Cox paced the Nittany Lions last season with career-low 73.07 stroke average, the third best single-season stroke average in program history, and three top-10 finishes including her first collegiate victory at the Columbia Classic. Cox had an impressive fall in 2023 firing an eye-popping 68.00 opening round stroke average. Cox is also coming off an impressive summer where she was a multiple time winner including medalist honors at a qualifying event to secure her spot in the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur.

Last season Nienhaus fired the best 54-hole score relative to par of her career at the Cougar Classic finishing the week 3-under, 210, and in a tie for 28th in the 96-player field. Nienhaus finished the season with a career-low 73.79 stroke average, good for second on the team behind Cox.

Jiratthitinun had a strong showing earlier this week in her collegiate debut at the Cougar Classic where she led the team with a 3-over, 216, including a final round in red figures with a 1-under, 70, score. She finished the week tied for 26th.

ABOUT THE NLI

The first-ever Nittany Lion Invitational was played in 1974 with this weekend marking the 25th consecutive NLI to be contested during the fall season.

Overall, the tournament has been held in the fall 34 times while taking place during the spring season on 13 different occasions with the last being in 1999.

Including the 2022 NLI, Penn State has captured 25 tournament crowns including seven of the last 12 and five of eight with a pair of runner-up finishes over that stretch as well.

Penn State has had 15 individual medalists with the last being Mathilde Delavallade in 2021.

Sarah Willis ‘22 holds the tournament record of 11-under (205) from her win in 2018 while Delavallade fell just one stroke shy during her 10-under (206) victory in 2021.

Penn State's 2018 final round score of 9-under, 279, is the second lowest 18-hole total in school history.

Youngstown State’s Madison Smithco earned medalist honors last season with a three-round total of 6-under, 210, while Boston College won the team title at 13-over, 877. The Eagles are not in the 2024 field to defend their title.

THE FIELD

This year’s field consists of the host Nittany Lions as well as 13 additional teams.

Akron, Central Michigan, Richmond, and Youngstown State make repeat appearances from last season’s field while Delaware, Seton Hall, Yale, Columbia, Harvard, Towson and Princeton all return after a short hiatus. Central Arkansas and Jacksonville State make the long trek up north for the first time to round out the field.

Each school will start five golfers with the four lowest scores counting toward the team total. Three individuals from Penn State along with three individuals from Richmond, two each from Princeton and Delaware one from Akron round out the 81-player field.

The Nittany Lions will be paired with Richmond and Yale for the first 36 holes on Saturday and will go off holes one through three with a 9 a.m. shotgun start.

THE TEAM

Penn State’s starting five will feature three of the five players who participated in the Cougar Classic led by Cox, Nienhaus and Jiratthitinun while freshman classmates Gwendolyn Powell (Madison Township, Pa.) and Lauren Thompstone (Paris, France) will make their collegiate debuts in the starting lineup.

Senior Jami Morris (Chagrin Falls, Ohio), junior Myranda Quinton (Burlington, Ontario) and freshman Zeynep Sualp (Marmaris, Turkiye) will each be participating as individuals.

NEXT UP

Penn State travels to a new destination this year making the short trip to Charlottesville to compete in the Cavalier Regional Preview on September 23-24.