PALOS VERDES ESTATES, Calif. – The Therese Hession Regional Challenge was originally scheduled for a three-day stroke play tournament to begin on Sunday, Feb. 4, but it was shifted to a match play format and moved up one day due to inclement weather in the Southern California area. No. 26 Arizona Women’s Golf will open the tournament with two rounds of action on Saturday before looking to finish as weather permits.
“Inclement weather impacting a great event is never something you want to see, but it does create a unique learning experience for our team,” said head coach Laura Ianello. “Weather delays and schedule changes are something you face during NCAA Regionals and Championships, so our focus this weekend will be on preparation, adaptation and preservation. Our young ladies are resilient and ready to overcome the challenges ahead of us.”
Coach Ianello’s lineup for the weekend includes Gile Bite Starkute, Lilas Pinthier, Nena Wongthanavimok, Julia Misemer and Charlotte Back. Pinthier and Misemer were Arizona’s top finishers in last year’s event, tying for 20th place at 5-over par. The Wildcats finished the 2023 edition of the Therese Hession Regional Challenge in seventh place out of 16 teams with a final score of 16-over.
Arizona is coming off a strong performance in its first event of 2024 after earning a runner-up finish at the Match in the Desert at Superstition Mountain Golf Club. Starkute won the individual title while tying a program record with an 8-under round of 64. The graduate senior tied Haley Moore’s round of 64 on the second day of the 2017 GolfWeek Conference Challenge for the lowest round ever carded by a Wildcat.
Starkute’s individual performance propelled the Wildcats into the record books as a team. Arizona shot 14-under par as a team in its runner-up finish at the Match in the Desert, which tied the lowest team round in school history. The Cats previously shot 14-under in the second round of the 2012 Wildcat Invitational. For her efforts in the successful run at the Match in the Desert, Starkute was named the Pac-12 Conference’s Co-Golfer of the week. The weekly conference honor was the first of her career, sharing the award with Washington’s Stefanie Deng.
With inclement weather and course conditions possibly impacting the format of the Therese Hession Regional Challenge, please check…
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