Men’s and women’s golf prepare for big week
The No. 21 men’s golf team and the No. 3 women’s golf team both have big tournaments this week as they look to add on to their tournament success. The men are headed to San Martin, California to compete at the Gifford Collegiate Championship, while the women will be in Hawaii for the Pac-12 Preview. The men have finished in the top-two three times in their four events and the women are looking to win their third straight first-place finish.
Powerful Park · All-American junior Annie Park is coming off of a win at the Windy City Collegiate Classic, the sixth of her career at USC. – Photo courtesy of USC Sports Information
The women won the Pac-12 Preview last year, an event in which every Pac-12 team and Hawai’i compete in a two-day tournament. The Women of Troy will use their fourth different lineup in their fourth event of the year with two-time All-American juniors Annie Park and Kyung Kim, All-American sophomore Karen Chung, sophomore Gabriella Then and junior transfer Elizabeth Doty.
Park’s win at the Windy City Collegiate Classic earlier this year was the sixth of her USC career, setting a new school record for career wins. Park has also qualified for the final stage of the LPGA “Q” School which will take place Dec. 3-7 at the LPGA International G.C. She tied for third at the Stage II event and was the only player in Stage II to finish under-par in all four rounds. Park and fellow All-American Kim are tied for second on USC’s career list for rounds in the 60s with 18 each, only four back of the all-time record.
The women’s team had nine wins last season which was two better than the previous school record of seven, set in the 2012-2013 season.
The men’s team will compete against UCLA, Colorado, Lamar, Northwestern, Stanford, South Florida, SMU, Texas and Wisconsin on the par-71 course in the three-day tournament. The Trojans return three starters from last year’s group that made it to the final round of the NCAA Championship for the eighth year in a row. The three returners are sophomore Rico Hoey, and seniors Paul Smith and Eric Sugimoto.
After four events, freshman Sean Crocker leads the men in stroke average and rounds in the 60s. Crocker has a pair of top-four finishes in the fall tournaments including a second-place tie at the Southwestern Intercollegiate. Hoey is second on the team in both stroke average and rounds in the 60s followed by freshman Jonah Texeira,75 who is third on the team in both categories. Hoey also has a couple of top-three finishes including a second-place finish at the Bill Cullum Invitational. Texeira has two top-10 finishes so far including a third-place finish at the Bill Cullum Invitational.
The Gifford Collegiate Championship runs from Nov. 3-5 while the Pac-12 preview kicks off on the Nov. 3 and finishes the next day. The results from both events can be followed on Golfstat.com.