Women's Golf Ready For PING/ASU Invitational
March 31, 2004
CORVALLIS, Ore. - -
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THIS WEEK: Oregon State takes on five teams ranked in the Golfweek top-10 Friday-Sunday, April 2-4 at the PING/ASU Invitational in Tempe, Arizona. Arizona State hosts the tournament at The Karsten Golf Course (par 72, 6,230 yards).
Of the 17 teams in the field, 13 are ranked 34th or better by Golfweek. UCLA (2), California (5), New Mexico (6), USC (9), and Arizona (10) highlight the talented field.
After finishing 18th last week amidst a similarly strong field at Texas' Longhorn Invitational, the Beavers have a chance to make up some ground on regional opponents in a bid for NCAA Regional Championship qualification.
"We need to play well this weekend," OSU coach Ris? Lakowske said. "There are some good teams in this field that we need to beat."
"We need to finish well and shoot some low numbers in order to help us qualify for Regionals."
Leading OSU's charge will be Laura Skinner (sr.), Lindsay Eide (fr.), Alex Lucio (jr.), Leah Whiting (so.) and Kelly Ferris, with Kelly Kerkvliet competing as an individual.
Of the four Beavers (Ferris, Lucio, Skinner and Whiting) who have played Karsten Golf Course before, Ferris has met with the most success. The senior has had some of the best rounds of her career on ASU's links-style layout, including a career-low 73 in the first round of last year's NCAA West Regional.
"Kelly Ferris is back in the lineup for the first time this spring, and she's played very well at ASU in the past," Lakowske said. "She's comfortable there, and the layout is similar to Trysting Tree (OSU's home course).
"Most of the girls have seen this course before, so we're looking forward to competing this weekend."
Ferris is in the lineup for the first time since November's Kent Youel Invitational after a wrist injury sidelined her for the first two tournaments of the spring season.
California won the team title at last year's PING/ASU Invitational with a three-round total of 12-over 876. UCLA's Charlotte Mayorkas took home individual medalist honors with a 7-under 203. Oregon State tied for 13th at last year's 16-team event, shooting 306-304-309--919. Lucio paced the Beavers with a 228 and a tie for 41st, while Ferris tied for 53rd and Skinner 63rd.
Teams tee off at 7:00 a.m. PST on Friday and Saturday and at 6:30 a.m. PST on Sunday, playing 18 holes each day. The top four scores from each five-person team will count toward the team score each day.
COMPLETE FIELD (Golfweek ranking): Arizona (10), Arizona State (34, host), California (5), New Mexico (6), New Mexico State (52), Northern Arizona (120), Oregon (31), Oregon State (76), Pepperdine (28), San Jose State (48), Stanford (24), UCLA (2), USC (9), Texas (17), TCU (33), Tulsa (16), and Washington (12).
LIVE SCORING: Live scoring will be provided each round by Golfstat at www.golfstat.com.
THE COACHES: The Oregon State women's golf program is in its 14th year under the guidance of coach Ris? (pronounced Reesa) Lakowske. In those 14 years, the program has been a consistent postseason contender with 10 team and individual appearances at the NCAA Regional Championships and two at the NCAA Championships.
Lakowske competed at OSU from 1973-77, playing in four AIAW National Championships, winning two collegiate events and several non-collegiate tournaments during her career. Most notably as an amateur competitor she was a semifinalist in the 1973 Western Junior Championship and also a semifinalist in the 1976 U.S. Women's Amateur, earning her a three-year exemption from U.S. Open qualifiers.
Kathleen Takaishi officially became Oregon State University's assistant women's golf coach on Feb. 23, 2004, returning to her alma mater after serving as the assistant coach for both the men's and women's programs at the University of California-Riverside for the last 1 1/2 years.
The former OSU All-American played professionally on the Futures Tour for three years after finishing her OSU career.
