Women’s Golf Returns to Familiar Grounds in Bay Area

STANFORD, Calif. – No. 20 Arizona Women’s Golf will return to a familiar setting when it tees off in the Stanford Intercollegiate on Friday. Despite Stanford Golf Course playing host to Pac-12 Championships and NCAA Regionals in recent years, the Wildcats will have 80 percent of their lineup playing on the course for the first time. Sophomore Nena Wongthanavimok, one of the Arizona golfers making her debut on Stanford’s on-campus course, leads the team heading into the third event of the season with a scoring average of 70.83.

“This weekend will be a great test for our entire team at a course that will feel like an NCAA Regional,” said head coach Laura Ianello. “We have a lot of course knowledge at Stanford, but it will be an opportunity for these young ladies to focus on executing a gameplan and being committed to every shot. It’s a challenge that I believe our team is ready for, which creates a good mindset for all of us going into the weekend.”

Graduate senior Gile Bite Starkute is the only member of the Arizona lineup with experience at Stanford Golf Course, which includes her top-20 finish at the 2021 Pac-12 Championships. Starkute and Wongthanavimok will be joined by junior Sydney Bryan, sophomore Julia Misemer and freshman Charlotte Back this weekend.

The field at the Stanford Intercollegiate has a strong Pac-12 flavor with Arizona State, Cal, Colorado, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, USC, UCLA and Washington all joining Arizona. Other participants include Auburn, Denver, Georgia Iowa State, Michigan, Northwestern, San Jose State, Texas and Virginia. The field accounts for 12 of the programs ranked in the top 25 of the Golfweek rankings.

Arizona will play 54 holes over three days this weekend before a quick turnaround of five days before its final fall tournament, the Landfall Tradition in Wilmington, North Carolina.