Women’s Golf Returns to Pac-12 Preview in Hawai’i

KAILUA-KONA, Hawai’i – With a handful of wins over top-25 programs and Pac-12 Golfer of the Week honors already earned in 2024, No. 20 Arizona Women’s Golf will make its annual trip to the Hawaiian Islands this week for the Pac-12 Preview. The Wildcats are part of the 11-team field taking on the prestigious Nanea Golf Club on the main island, which includes five programs ranked in the top 20 of this week’s national NCAA rankings.

“We have played some really good golf to start the new year, and I am eager to see our team get back out there and play more high-level golf,” said head coach Laura Ianello. “We have played well in this tournament the last two years, so we will have a good game plan for Nanea Golf Club for the week. Our young ladies continue to improve in each tournament that we play, and I expect us to see even more great scores this week.”

Arizona’s lineup will feature its two Pac-12 Golfer of the Week award winners in graduate senior Gile Bite Starkute and freshman Charlotte Back. Joining Starkute and Back in Hawai’i will be Carolina Melgrati, Julia Misemer and Nena Wongthanavimok. Starkute, a native of Lithuania, has played in this event in each of the last two seasons that includes a third-place finish at 7-under par a year ago. Misemer and Wongthanavimok both posted top-20 scores in last season’s Pac-12 Preview as the Wildcats finished in third place for a second consecutive year.

The Wildcats are coming off match play competition at the Therese Hession Regional Challenge where they defeated No. 15 Clemson and No. 25 Mississippi State. The team opened the new calendar year with a runner-up finish at the Match in the Desert in Gold Canyon, Arizona. Starkute claimed her first collegiate victory at the event and tied the program record for lowest player round with an 8-under par 64. 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.

The Nanea Golf Club will…