After a rough fall season, the ASU women’s golf team is preparing for the start of its spring season this week in Palos Verdes, California, for the Northrop Grumman Invitational.
In the fall, the Sun Devils played in just three tournaments as a team and shot over par in all of them. The last tournament, the Pac-12 Preview in Kona, Hawaii, was the team’s best finish as they shot 16-over-par in a tie for fifth place.
The final round of that tournament may have been the best round the team played all season, shooting 4-under as a team with the help of eagles from sophomore Monica Vaughn and freshman Sophia Zeeb.
Vaughn was the only player on the team to not shoot over par as she put in an even score over three rounds. She shot 6-under-par on the final day.
If the team wants to start off on the right foot in the spring, it won’t come easy in the Northrop Grumman Invitational as the field includes three of the top four teams in the country according to GolfWeek’s rankings.
No. 1 Washington, No. 3 UCLA and No. 4 Duke aren’t even the only teams in the field in the top 10. No. 6 USC and No. 10 Wake Forest also bring a lot of talent and experience to the field.
The Washington Huskies won the Pac-12 Preview event in Hawaii to end the fall season with a score of 11-under-par, the only team to shoot under par at the event.
GolfWeek ranks the Sun Devil women’s golf team No. 27, making it the lowest ranked Pac-12 in the field this week. The rival Arizona Wildcats, who will be in the field as well, come in at No. 14 in the rankings.
Senior Noemi Jimenez, who is currently ranked fourth in the world by World Amateur Golf Rankings, is starting her last semester as Sun Devil. After recording two top-10 finishes in the fall, including a fifth place finish at the Annika Invitational to start the season in September, the top player on the team will be looking to finish her ASU career strong. Jimenez will get the nod for the first player spot this week.
Jimenez earned first team Global All-Amateur honors in December, an honor handed out to a total of 211 men and women at different levels by Global Golf Post.
Fellow senior Emilie Alonso, who did not play in the Pac-12 Preview in November, will be playing from the fourth spot in the first event of her last semester.
Vaughn, freshman Roberta Liti and sophomore Saki Iida will make up the rest of the lineup in California this week. This will be the same lineup the team used at the Stanford Intercollegiate in October, when they shot 19-over and finished in 10th place.
The first round of the Northrop Grumman Invitational begins on Sunday with the third and final round wrapping up on Tuesday.
Reach the reporter at wslane@asu.edu or on Twitter @bill_slane
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