April 9, 2012
ONEONTA, Ala. -
The Samford University women's golf team will host its first tournament of the 2011-12 season this week as the Bulldogs welcome nine teams to compete in the annual Samford Intercollegiate to be held at the Limestone Springs Golf Club.
The 54-hole competition will be held Monday and Tuesday, and is slated to begin Monday with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. (CDT). Limestone Springs is a highly-acclaimed 6,039-yard, par-72 golf course.
The field of this week's 2012 Samford Intercollegiate consists of the following teams: Samford (host), Florida Southern, Jacksonville State, Louisiana-Monroe, Middle Tennessee, Newberry, South Alabama, Tennessee Tech, Troy and UAB.
Samford heads into its fifth tournament of the spring season with aspirations of bouncing back from an 11th-place finish at the 2012 UALR Classic, which was held March 27-28, at the Diamante Country Club in Hot Springs, Ark.
The 19-team UALR Classic featured seven squads ranked in the top-100 nationally by GolfStat.com, led by No. 31 Tulsa.
The highly-competitive field for the tournament consisted of Samford, UALR, Arkansas State, Ball State, Central Arkansas, Eastern Michigan, Louisiana-Monroe, Middle Tennessee, UMKC, Missouri State, North Texas, Northern Colorado, Northern Iowa, Oral Roberts, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, UTEP, Troy, Tulsa and Wichita State.
Samford finished the 2012 UALR Classic in 11th place, just seven strokes out of the seventh position and only one stroke behind 10th-place Troy. The Bulldogs improved their score in each of the three rounds of the tournament and finished the two-day competition with a total team mark of 913 (309-304-300).
Individually, Samford was paced by sophomore Alex Jasper who posted a 54-hole score of 226 (74-79-73). She was followed by the Bulldogs' true freshman Emily Stallings (77-76-76=229), senior Sarah Butts (77-77-78=232) and Natalie Mitchell (81-76-75=232). Junior Anna Heim overcame a difficult first round to finish with a 54-hole mark of 233 (82-75-76).
The 2012 Samford Intercollegiate will begin Monday with the opening two rounds of play (36 holes), and then the teams are scheduled to play the final 18 holes Tuesday. Competition is slated to begin each day at 8:30 a.m. (CDT).
