Sept. 18, 2015
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State women's golf team continues its fall schedule early next week when it travels to the Rocky Mountains for the Golfweek Conference Challenge, Sept. 21-23, in Wolcott Colo. The three-day, 54-hole tournament commences with first-round action Monday on the par-72, 6,261-yard Tom Fazio Course at Red Sky Golf Club. A live scoring link for all three rounds will be available courtesy of Golfstat on GoAztecs.com.
A total of 18 different conferences will be represented by one member institution at the seventh annual event, including 13 squads ranked among the top 100 in the Golfweek/Sagarin preseason ratings. The defending Mountain West champion Aztecs, who were ranked No. 26 in the poll, will square off against the likes of Arizona State (19), Pepperdine (25), TCU (48), Campbell (53), Florida International (59), host Denver (61), Memphis (72), Long Beach State (74), New Mexico State (79), Troy (80), Lamar (88) and Nebraska (98). Meanwhile, Boston College, Jacksonville, Ole Miss, Toledo and Wichita State round out the list of participating schools.
Fifth-year SDSU head coach Leslie Spalding will bring five players to the Centennial State, including senior Emma Henrikson (Malmö, Sweden) and junior Sirene Blair (South Jordan, Utah), along with sophomores Mila Chaves (Asuncion, Paraguay), Haleigh Krause (Eugene, Ore.) and Georgia Lacey (Del Mar, Calif.), who will be making her 2015-16 debut after making nine starts a year ago.
The Aztecs are coming off a ninth-place finish last week in Albuquerque, N.M., at the highly competitive Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational that featured 11 top-50 schools. SDSU was led by Henrikson, who tied for third out of 104 competitors after shooting a 6-under 213, while Blair landed in the 23rd position at even-par 219.
Last month, Henrikson earned a No. 79 ranking in the preseason Golfweek/Sagarin individual poll, while Chaves followed closely in the 81st spot.
Pepperdine has captured the team title at the Golfweek Challenge in each of the past three seasons and boasts the tournament's last two medalists in Grace Na and Marissa Chow. Chow returns to defend her individual crown after carding a 6-under 210 last year to win by four strokes over three players, including Tennessee sisters A.J. and Anna Newell and Denver's Mariell Bruun.
Located near the famed Vail Ski Area, the Tom Fazio Course features open sage covered hills and dense aspen forest around a highland lake. Fazio's design team has made a meticulous effort to maintain the site's indigenous vegetation by relocating more than 23,000 native plants into nurseries for re-planting throughout the course.
Henrikson is the lone holdover from the Aztecs' last trip to Red Sky in 2012, when she carded a 12-over 228 to tie for 36th out of 90 golfers in her second collegiate event, finishing eight strokes behind former teammate Christine Wong, who tied for 13th at 4-over 220. Wong's score was highlighted by a hole-in-one on the par-3 17th during the second round as SDSU tied for ninth in the team standings with a combined 54-over 918.
Following the Golfweek Challenge, San Diego State will have two weeks off before traveling to the Pacific Northwest for the University of Washington's Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational, Oct 6-7, at Sahalee Country Club, in Sammamish, Wash.