SPOKANE, Wash.—The Gonzaga University women's golf squad will be reuniting with an old friend of sorts Monday when the Zags begin play at the UC Irvine Invitational. That old friend will be the golf course, Santa Ana Country Club, on which GU won the team tournament and Alice Kim took home medalist honors two years ago.
"We have great memories of this golf course: Alice winning [in 2013], the team winning, last year we took fourth," said GU head coach Brad Rickel. "The field is better than ever this year, but we have nothing but good feelings about this golf course. It's a big bonus for us and we're going to go there with the intent of being as good as we can be."
If the second day of the Zags' most recent tournament, the Peg Barnard Invitational, is any indication, the playing as good as possible could mean another victory in Santa Ana. GU posted the third-best team score of the tournament on the final day, shooting better than host school and fifth-ranked Stanford on its home course. Senior Han Wu led the charge for the Bulldogs for that round, shooting 1-under-par 70, her best of the season and one of five rounds under par on the day.
"We had a different competitive spirit for round two, and it was great," Rickel said. "Having Han step up and be our best player the final day was what we were looking for all year long, for that five spot to be a helping spot. It'll free up the team to know their five deep right now."
The same five who competed at the Peg Barnard: Kim, Wu, Raychelle Santos, Ciera Min, and Dania Uy, will hit the links again this week for Gonzaga. The Bulldogs will need all five players to contribute if they want another win at Santa Ana. This year's field of the UC Irvine is loaded with top teams, including three of GolfWeek's top five squads in #1 Washington, #3 USC, and #5 Stanford. Four more of the weekend's teams are in the top 25, and all but one of the 13 teams - host school UC Irvine - is outside GolfWeek's top 100.
"This is the best field we've played the entire year. We're going to need to use all our good vibes from that place to shoot our low scores," said Rickel. "If we can come as the team we were the second day at Stanford, though, we'll be fine."
The two-day, three-round UC Irvine Invitational will begin with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start on Monday, Feb. 23, with round two following Monday afternoon. The final round will take place Tuesday, Feb. 24 with tee times beginning at 7:45 a.m. Live stats on both days may be found here.
