GREENEVILLE, Tenn. -- For the eighth time in the past nine years, the William Woods University women's golf team will keep playing long after finals and graduation have passed, as returning 2011 NAIA All-Americans
Jada Bennington (Beloit, Wis.) and
Jamie Palermo (Santa Fe, N.M.) lead the Owls into the 20th Annual NAIA Women's Golf National Championships. The squad is set to tee off in the first round Tuesday, looking to tame the Robert Trent Jones-designed Link Hills Country Club course. Tuesday's tee time for the Owls is set for 8:20 a.m.
In addition to Bennington and Palermo, the Owls return all five members of last year's ninth-place squad to the national championships this year.
Ashlee Daly (Rocheport, Mo.),
Lindsey Johnson (Springfield, Mo.) and
Naomi Starr (Columbia, Mo.) all return to Link Hills Country Club following solid seasons.
Bennington leads the Owls with an average score of 77.36 on the year, picking up three individual medalist wins on the year, finishing outside the top 10 just three times in 11 tournaments through the 2011-12 season. Her individual average is tops in the AMC and 14th best nationwide. In play this season against other top 20-rated players, she boasts a 6-2-0 record, falling only to Courtney Shelton of Lee University and Trish Gibbens of the College of Idaho. She was also named the NAIA Women's Golfer of the Week after leading the Owls to back-to-back team wins at the Washington University Spring Invitational and the WWU Spring Invitational.
Johnson is also among the top 50 score averages in the country, carding an average of 79.09 strokes per round. The junior has collected seven top 10 finishes on the year, including an individual title at the CMU Eagle Open and a runner-up finish to Bennington at the WWU Spring Invitational. She was also named to the All-Tournament team at the AMC Championship and earned all-AMC honors.
Starr collected a runner-up finish at the AMC Championship, her sixth top 10 finish on the season. The junior sits just outside the top 50, ranked 52nd with an average of 79.95 strokes per round. She also nabbed all-AMC and AMC All-Tournament team honors as well.
The final two players for the Owls have been on a late-season surge. After pulling her average down to 80.00 strokes/round (55th), Palermo has posted three straight top five finishes to close out the 2011-12 regular season. A recent addition to the WWU women's soccer team as well, the sophomore closed out with bronze medal finishes in the CMU Eagle Open and the AMC Championship to collect all-AMC and AMC All-Tournament team honors.
Daly led the Owls to the team title at the AMC Championship tournament, claiming the individual title after holding off a charge from Palermo and Starr. The senior has posted four consecutive top 10 finishes, finding her form just in time for the national championship tournament. Her average of 81.14 strokes/round is 91st best in the nation and she has put together WWU's second-best record against the top 20-rated players with a 6-13 mark.
As a team, the Owls have posted the fourth-best average in the NAIA, compiling a 111-7 adjusted head-to-head record and a 9-2 record in tournament play against teams rated in the top 25 throughout the 2011-12 season. The Owls have already bested a number of teams they will square off against in the 2012 championship, as they edged Embry-Riddle, Northwood (Fla.), SCAD-Savannah, South Carolina Beaufort and Wayland Baptist in the Embry-Riddle Eagle Invitational to open the 2012 spring season.
The Owls - along with a number of other qualifiers - have already seen the Link Hills track during the 2011-12 season, as Greeneville hosted a preview tournament during the fall schedule. William Woods took a fourth-place finish during the fall event, posting a 630 (310-320; +46) over 36 holes. WWU opens the tournament from the 10th tee on Tuesday, and will open the second round on Wednesday from the first tee box.
About the Course
The course, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., was established in 1954 and expanded to its current footprint in 1965. This is the second year for Link Hills to play host to the NAIA National Championship. The Link Hills track plays 6,044 yards for the tournament at a par of 73, with a slope of 116 and an overall rating of 70 from the red tees.
The course mixes a number of challenging holes, testing golfers from the outset. The first hole opens with a slight dogleg right to a green protected by bunkers on all four corners, with the second hole taking a sharp left turn halfway through. Holes three through seven play relatively straight, although bunkers protect the front edge of the green on six of the first seven holes. The front nine offers a pair of ace opportunities, with golfers in the 2011 NAIA National Tournament recording holes-in-one on the third (Shelbye Hill) and sixth (Carol Galindo) holes.
Only one bunker protects the eight green - at the end of a curling left-hand fairway - but the bunker extends almost the full length of the narrow green. The ninth tee offers a choice: a layup after the tee shot yields an easy chip-and-run between a solo bunker on the left and a pair of traps on the right, but the green is reachable in a pair of well-struck shots.
After the turn, a dead straight 10th hole welcomes the golfers, although two bunkers present a tough bottleneck to navigate to make the green. Another dogleg - this one to the left - greets golfers at the 11th hole, with the lone water hole following at 12.
For the 13th, golfers will need to carry a long stretch of rough to hit the fairway, which curls left to a green protected by a narrow strip of bunker. A pitch shot to the right third of the green is the safe shot, but may leave a tough putt depending on pin location.
The 14th hole is short but also tough, with three traps surrounding the green and thick woods punishing overshots to the fourth corner. Another narrow bunker protects the front left of the green on 15, although it only shields the right half.
Golfers get a short reprieve on 16, as the hole offers a line to the green between two bunkers, but a short fairway makes the tee shot critical. A pair of bunkers also protect the green at 17, although a well-placed drive will set golfers up for an easy second shot into a chip-and-run through the channel.
Carrying a good tee shot is also important for the 18th, as the tee boxes are offset slightly from the dead-straight fairway. Four small bunkers surround the egg-shaped green that overlooks the driving range.
About the Field
The 2012 NAIA National Championship will see a new winner crowned, as 2011 champs California Baptist is in the process of transitioning to NCAA Division II status. All but one of the remaining teams in the top 10 from last year's tournament are back, however, with an even mix of automatic bids and at-large selections. 2011 runner-up Embry-Riddle comes in as the top at-large selection, with Shorter (Ga.) grabbing the fourth at-large bid following a third-place finish in 2011.
Nine of the top 10-rated teams from Golfstat.com enter the tournament with stroke averages under 80, with South Carolina-Beaufort just four hundredths over the mark. Of those teams, Lee University - who finished in a 10th-place tie in 2011 - and British Columbia University - sixth in 2011 - enter the tournament with perfect head-to-head records against teams rated in the top 25, with BCU holding a perfect 118-0 adjusted head-to-head for the 2011-12 season.
Looking at the coaches poll, Oklahoma City has led from wire-to-wire, with Lee and BCU swapping the second and third spots in the polls. William Woods charged from a preseason no. 7 ranking to take the fourth spot in each of the final three ballots, making a big move after besting five eventual qualifiers in the Embry-Riddle Eagle Invitational to open the spring season.
Live Scoring Available
Live scoring will be available for this week's tournament, provided at golfstat.com. The link to the results is provided at wwuowls.com, by clicking on the women's golf schedule.
