Women’s golf in middle of UC Irvine Invitational


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No. 2 USC women’s golf is looking to improve their           second-place finish at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge at the UC Irvine Invitational.

The Women of Troy started another different lineup for the tournament: it’s their sixth different lineup in an equal amount of appearances. For the UCI Invitational, the starting lineup for USC consists of juniors Annie Park and Kyung Kim, sophomores Karen Chung and Gabriella Then and freshman Amy Lee. Junior Kim Santiago is playing individually in the tournament.

The first day of play consisted of two rounds. The Women of Troy finished second with a 1-over 577. They’re chasing Washington, who put up a 10-under 566. No. 15 Texas A&M is right behind USC sitting at 2-over.

Atop the leaderboard for USC, Lee finished a stellar 36-hole day with a 6-under 138 (70, 68) to have the individual lead.

She has a two-shot lead over Marijosse Navarro of Texas A&M and Kimmy Hill of Texas Tech. Lee is tied for 12th after an even 36 holes to put her at an even par of 144 (71, 73).

Kim finished the first day with a 4-over 148 (70, 78) to tie for 26th. Chung (76, 75) and Park (77, 74) both finished with a 7-over 151 to tie for 38th. Santiago shot 8-over 152 (74, 78) to tie for 43rd.

The two-day, 54-hole (36, 18) invitational consists of three Pac-12 teams — No. 2 USC,  No. 4 Washington, No. 5 Stanford — and 10 other teams — San Diego State, UC Davis, Pepperdine, Texas A&M, Gonzaga, SMU, UNLV, Texas Tech, CSU Long Beach and host UCI.

The Women of Troy will look to improve their overall scores and overtake Washington for the lead in the final 18 holes of play. Sitting in second place, that’s quite feasible for the Women of Troy. They’ll look especially to Then and Lee, who finished 10th and third, respectively, at the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge.

Park, a seasoned veteran, can also help improve the Women of Troy’s place in the UC Irvine Invitational.

Park was the NCAA Champion in 2013 and also holds the record for the most tournament wins at USC with six victories. Her most recent victory was at the Windy City Collegiate Championship this past October where she shot a 5-under and helped the Women of Troy win the tournament with a three-stroke lead to defend their 2013 title.

A strong performance from Park on the final 18 holes of the course will surely help the Women of Troy ascend the leaderboard and claim the top spot from Washington.

Overall this season, the Women of Troy have had two wins during the fall in four events and have three top-2 finishes this season.

The Women of Troy will look to continue the success they have seen so far this season and finish the UC Irvine Invitational with another victory.