SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women's golf kicks off the spring season on Monday when they host the Lamkin Invitational at The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., the Aztecs' home course.
The 54-hole tournament will get underway Monday with 36 holes beginning with an 8 a.m. PT shotgun start. The final 18 will be played Tuesday, also with an 8 a.m. shotgun start.
The tournament features a loaded 14-team field where nine of the schools are ranked in the Golfstat and WGCA polls, including No. 1 Stanford and No. 4 Oregon. Also competing is No. 11 Texas, No. 12 San Jose State, No. 13 Arizona, No. 14 UCLA, No. 18 Arizona State. No. 20 Ole Miss, No. 23 USC, Cal, Colorado, Kansas and Pepperdine.
This is the 10th time SDSU has hosted this tournament. They won it in 2020 when it used a match play format and Sara Kjellker tied for second at last year's event.
Monday's forecast will be sunny and warm with a high of 75 degrees. Tuesday will be much cooler with cloudy skies, an expected high of 59 degrees and a chance of rain.
The Aztecs will be paired with No. 1 Stanford and No. 12 San Jose State, the Mountain West favorite, on Monday. SDSU's lineup will be Sara Kjellker, Bernice Olivarez Ilas, Anika Sato, Sammy Lee and Anna Lina Otten, while April Ranches and Esti Garcia Rubio will play as individuals. Kjellker, Olivarez Ilas, Sato and Otten played all three tournaments for the Aztecs in the fall.
Kjellker (Hollviken, Sweden), the Mountain West Golfer of the Year last year, averaged 72.75 strokes per round in the fall and tied for sixth at the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational and shot a 66 in her second round. She was tied for second at this event last year.
Olivarez Ilas (Ayala Alabang, Philippines) and Sato (Utsunomiya, Japan) both had a stroke average of 73.1 in the fall and finished an even par or better in four of their eight rounds. Sato tied for sixth after shooting a pair of 71s at the Golfweek Conference Challenge. Olivarez Ilas tied for 27th at this tournament last year (232, +16).
Lee (San Ramon, Calif.) played in two tournaments in the fall and shot a career best 73 in her first round at the Illini Invitational at Medinah.
Otten (Neuss, Germany) averaged 75.4 strokes per round in the all and had her best outing at the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational when she finished tied for 33rd with a career-best 221 (+5). She tied for 22nd at the event last year playing as an individual (230; 73-73-74).
Aztecs Hosting Lamkin Invitational
