No. 5 Women's Golf Gears Up for UCF Challenge
Friday, March 7, 2008 | Women's Golf
The 18-team field at the UCF Challenge will feature 15 of the nation's top 25 teams including top-ranked Duke and second-ranked UCLA, along with 19 of the country's top 25 individuals in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin rankings. Duke is the reigning team champion from 2007 as Amanda Blumenherst captured individual honors and an exemption to the Sybase Classic.
Head coach Jill Briles-Hinton will go with the same lineup that Florida presented at the Lady Gator Invitational. UF placed fifth at last year's UCF Challenge played at the Villas of Grand Cypress in Orlando.
“It will be a good test of golf for us,” Briles-Hinton said. “We've never played this course before and it should be three rounds of really good golf because the team is coming off of strong performances. There is a lot of motivation to get the (LPGA) exemption but it's all about the players' ability to control their thoughts.”
Senior Tiffany Chudy (Miramar, Fla.) heads to the UCF Challenge fresh off her first collegiate medal as she set the school's low- tournament record with a 209 at the Mark Bostick Golf Course.
“Every team competing this weekend is a great team,” Chudy said. “Golf is so weird because anything can happen. Instead of looking at what a great field we're playing against, we can say we make up part of that field because we're ranked fifth.”
Fellow senior Whitney Myers (East Berlin, Pa.) is coming off a third-place performance at the Lady Gator Invitational and freshman Hannah Yun (Bradenton, Fla.) racked up a top-five finish in just her second collegiate event, tying for fourth at UF's home tournament.
With a consistent effort of back-to-back closing rounds of 72, redshirt junior Ornella Jouven (La Ciotat, France) placed in a tie for seventh at the Lady Gator Invitational, her second top-10 effort this season.
Freshman Jessica Yadloczky (Casselberry, Fla.) posted another top- 10 finish, placing ninth, and will round out the lineup. She will be the first UF player off the tee, getting her first swing in at 8:45 a.m. Yadloczky was able to see the course for the first time, playing a practice round recently with former UF golfer Andrea Vander Lende.
“Playing the course in California really gave us confidence,” Yadloczky said about the Palos Verdes Golf Club for the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge. “Red Tail is a tricky placement course with a West Palm layout plus the greens are big and undulating.”
Senior Eleanor Tucker (Wilson, N.C.) will be Florida's individual. Tucker tied for the school record with second-round tally of 67 at the Lady Gator Invitational, tying for 23rd.
Live scoring will be kept courtesy of Central Florida at www.golfstat.com.
UCF Challenge Field
No. 1 Duke
No. 2 UCLA
No. 4 USC
No. 5 Florida
No. 7 Oklahoma State
No. 8 Arkansas
No. 10 Auburn
No. 11 Purdue
No. 12 Georgia
No. 14 Alabama
No. 15 Tennessee
No. 18 Pepperdine
No. 22 New Mexico
No. 23 Vanderbilt
No. 36 Florida State
No. 37 Furman
Central Florida
Rankings are as of March 3 by Golfweek/Sagarin
