Catharyn Hayne / KLC fotos
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Following a record-filled fall season, the No. 18 California women’s golf team begins its 2024 spring slate this weekend at the Collegiate Invitational.
The Golden Bears enter the two-day competition on the par-72, 6,333-yard course at Guadalajara Country Club with the highest national ranking (Spikemark) among the 12-team field. This will be their first tournament since they climbed six spots on the final day of the Stanford Intercollegiate to earn a third-place team finish in late October.
“Heading into the spring, we really just want to approach this in a similar way as we did in the fall,” junior Kaylyn Noh said. “We just came off a really long and productive break and we’re excited to get back out there. We know there’s really no limit to where we can finish this season.”
While this is the second straight year that the Bears will compete in the Virginia-hosted tournament, its sole returning member from last year’s Collegiate Invitational squad is Jieming Yang, who makes the lineup for the second time in her junior season.
Joining Yang are Noh, Adora Liu, Olivia Lee, and Constance Fouillet, all of whom played a key role in their team’s unprecedented 15-day run from Sept. 25-Oct. 8 which saw the Bears win the Molly Invitational, the Big Match and the Ron Moore Intercollegiate. It was the first time in program history that the Bears won three straight tournaments.
“The thing that our team is able to do so well is trust each other when we’re out there,” Noh said. “Unlike other sports where you’re constantly working through strategies with your teammates, golf is a very individual sport. Being able to trust what your teammates are doing well and knowing that they have trust in you is what pushed us to do so well this past fall, and I think taking that into the spring is going to help us a lot.”
The Bears originally hosted at Guadalajara Country Club back in 2006, when Virginia head coach Ria Scott was a student-athlete at Cal. They all returned in February of 2020 when UVA hosted the inaugural Collegiate Invitational, which turned out to be one of the final collegiate golf events prior to the COVID-19 shutdowns.
TOURNAMENT INFO
- Dates: Feb. 2-3, 2024
- Format: 54 holes (36-18, Friday-Saturday)
- First Tee Time: 6:00 a.m. PT
- Location: Guadalajara,…
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