After a one-month hiatus, the No. 3 ASU women’s golf team returns to the course in the Stanford Intercollegiate Competition Oct. 19-21.
Coach Melissa Luellen said junior Daniela Ordonez was dealing with a back injury and has been rehabbing.
Luellen added that she was “probably 60 percent” healthy.
Ordonez is still scheduled to tee off for ASU at 9:06 a.m. on Friday, according to Golfstat.com.
If she can’t finish the invitational, ASU would lose the luxury of having a dropped score, and arguably its best golfer.
Ordonez was ASU’s top finisher at the Dale McNamara Invitational last month, at 3-under, placing second overall.
Luellen said Ordonez won’t do all the practice holes on Thursday and said “we’ll see,” in regards to her playing status on Friday.
Fortunately for Ordonez and the Sun Devils, the Stanford Intercollegiate will not consist of multiple rounds being played on the same day.
Playing 36 holes in a single day can be exhausting for any golfer, yet alone one that is hurt. At the McNamara Invitational, ASU played two rounds on the first day.
ASU will bring the same lineup as the one they entered at the McNamara Invitational; however, the order in the starting lineup will be changed.
Because of her strong performance last month, Ordonez gets the nod as the No. 1 ASU golfer. Junior Laura Blanco, who competed in the World Amateurs in September in Turkey, follows behind her.
Sophomore Noemi Jimenez got off to a terrific start at Dale McNamara at 5-under, but ended up being the drop score in the next two rounds.
Junior Justine Lee was thought to be ASU’s No. 1 golfer in the preseason, but her teammates are playing exceptional at this point, putting Lee down as the team’s No. 4. Sophomore Emilie Alonso rounds out ASU’s starting five.
The field in the Stanford Intercollegiate is nothing short of brutal. Of the 17 competing schools, 12 of them are ranked in the top-25 of the Women’s Golf Coaches Association coaches’ poll.
The Sun Devils are actually the highest-ranked team in the invitational, but No. 4 UA and No. 5 USC — who lost last year’s national championship by a single stroke — are entered as well.
Notes
- Former Secretary of State and current Stanford political science professor Condoleezza Rice will be hosting the invitational.
- ASU last won the Stanford Intercollegiate in 2009, the season after they captured its most recent national championship.
Reach the reporter at justin.janssen@asu.edu
