Women’s golf will head to the Golfweek Red Sky Classic on Monday in pursuit of its first tournament win of the season. The Classic will take place from Sept. 22 to 24. 

Preseason No. 4 USC has not competed on the tournament’s Fazio course within the last five seasons, so it will be a new look for the Trojans. USC will face 19 teams, including new opponents including Arizona and UC Irvine. The tournament’s defending champions, Kansas Jayhawks, will return to the green. 

USC finished third at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate to kick off the fall season on Sept. 10 with a total of 860 strokes. Sophomore transfer Elise Lee led the performance, marking her Trojan debut with a five-under-par performance that earned her Big Ten Golfer of the Week. 

“[Lee] is really good,” Head Coach Justin Silverstein said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “She’s been a real stabilizing factor in that regard for us … it’s infectious when you have someone on your roster who is that consistent and that eager to get better — she’s really filled that void.” 

Despite Lee’s strong effort, the Trojans fell just one stroke short of preseason-ranked No. 3 Oregon and four strokes short of the winning preseason-ranked No. 12 Wake Forest. Silverstein said the team had been in a favorable position on the second nine of the last day at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate. 

“It was kind of a bummer not to close it out,” Silverstein said. “No one really got hot for us that last day, and it’s really what we were lacking.”

With junior Bailey Shoemaker still out with an unspecified arm injury, the starting lineup remains the same for the Trojans this weekend. Two team standouts, senior Catherine Park and sophomore Jasmine Koo, will return to campaign for the Trojans’ first tournament win of the season.

The duo previously tied for 15th at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate. Koo and Park finished at even par at the tournament. Both are ranked in the top 10 of the World Amateur Golf Ranking: Koo is ranked ninth, and Park is ranked 10th. 

While Silverstein said he was pleased with the team’s preparation for the tournament, he said the team has been focusing on its speed on the greens heading into the next tournament. 

“It was not good in our first event,” Silverstein said. “We need to be better in that category, so that’s been a big stress point in practice.” 

Silverstein also said the Trojans have been working on their decision-making, including picking better targets and picking better clubs off tees and into the green. The women’s golf program itself is “very analytical, very data-based,” Silverstein said. 

“Every shot we hit is measured at a really high level … we practice in a super-controlled environment to do our ball skills testing,” he said. 

First tee at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic is on Monday at Red Sky Golf Club in Wolcott, Colo.