Women’s Golf Returns to Florida for Columbia Classic

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.

The event is a new one for the Nittany Lions and will be hosted by Columbia University at the Duran Golf Club in Melbourne, Florida.

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. Penn State will be paired with Notre Dame and Princeton for Saturday’s opening round and will start on the first hole with tee times beginning at 8 a.m.

 

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 6,357 yards for the week. The front side opens and closes with par fives with the course as a hole featuring 10 par fours along with a quartet of par fives and threes making up the 18 holes.

THE TEAM

• The Nittany Lions competing this weekend remain the same from the UCF Challenge last week with one change as senior Taylor Waller (Canonsburg, Pa.) will slot into the lineup after a career-best 54-hole score of 218 (2-over) last week in Orlando. Sophomore Michelle Cox (Allentown, Pa.) will tee it up as an individual.
• Senior’s Mathilde Delavallade (Royan, France), Sarah Willis (Eaton, Ohio) and Isha Dhruva (Katy, Texas) are joined by sophomore Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) to round out the starting lineup.
• Willis carded three-consecutive 70’s last week at the UCF Challenge, including bogey-free rounds on Sunday and Tuesday, to finish the event 6-under, 210, and tied for 17th position, her 14th career top-20 finish. Willis’ 54-hole total of 6-under, 210, is the second lowest of her career and the fifth lowest in program history.
• Nienhaus registered a career-low, 3-under, 69, to pace the Penn State women’s golf team to a 1-under, 287, in…