OU Women’s Golf Heads to Missouri for Johnie Imes Invitational
NORMAN, Okla. – The University of Oklahoma women’s golf team tees off in its third tournament of the fall season Oct. 4-5 (Monday-Tuesday) at the Johnie Imes Invitational at the 6,204-yard, par-72 Club at Old Hawthorne in Columbia, Mo.
The 15-team, 54-hole tournament, hosted by the University of Missouri, will offer the Sooners’ young lineup a stiff course challenge and an opportunity to square off against some familiar foes.
“The golf course is unlike anything we have seen this year,” said OU head coach Veronique Drouin. “The setup is good, but has different grasses than we’re used to. The rough is thick and sticky and there are a lot of tightly mown short game areas. How we deal with the rough and short game areas will determine how well we play.”
The Club at Old Hawthorne will also host next spring’s 2011 Big 12 Championship, making the Johnie Imes one of the most important tournaments on OU’s 2010-11 regular season schedule.
“There are a lot of Big 12 teams here and we are looking forward to seeing where we are as a team in the conference,” said Drouin. “We will also be playing this course in the spring at the Big 12 Championship, so hopefully we can learn from the course and what adjustments we’ll need to make in the coming months.”
The field includes Big 12 schools Baylor, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma State. Also competing is Arkansas-Little Rock, Florida International, Illinois State, Missouri State, Princeton, Texas State and Wisconsin.
The Sooners, who are No. 20 in the Golfstat.com rankings, are coming off back-to-back top-three finishes, including a second-place showing last weekend at the Susie Maxwell Berning Classic in Norman.
Oklahoma will be led by freshman Emily Collins. The Colleyville, Texas, native has placed in top eight in both of her tournament appearances as a Sooner, averaging a team-best 72.5 strokes per round.
Freshman Anne-Catherine Tanguay, who finished in third place at the Susie Maxwell, will start in the No. 2 position for the Sooners.
Claiming the third spot in the OU lineup is senior Ellen Mueller, who is coming off of her 11th career top-10 finish.
Freshman Chirapat Jao-Javanil, who finished in eighth place at the Susie Maxwell, will start at the No. 4 position while sophomore Taylor Schmidt will start at No. 5.
Monday will feature 36 holes of continuous play while the final 18 holes will be played Tuesday. Both days will be under a shotgun start format, with teams teeing off at 8 a.m. CT. Live stats will be available at Golfstat.com.
Updated 10-04-2010
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