Monday, April 19
Irvine, CA
8 a.m.
at
Big West Conference Championship
Freshman Nicole Neale, shown at the Fresno State Classic earlier this week, takes a team-leading 75.5 scoring average into next week's Big West Conference Championshup.
Cal Poly Seeks Second Big West Women's Golf Championship
4/16/2021 12:28:00 PM | Women's Golf
LIVE SCORING
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly is seeded No. 1 for the 2021 Big West Conference Women's Golf Championship, slated for a three-day run Monday through Wednesday at the Yorba Linda Country Club.
The Mustangs, seeking their first Big West team title since claiming the program's initial conference championship in 2017, are the highest rated squad in the GolfStat.com rankings at No. 82.
Second is UC Davis at No. 109 followed by Hawai'i (118) and Long Beach State (120), which captured back-to-back Big West titles in 2018 and 2019. The 2020 event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The team to beat this year is your Mustangs!" exclaimed sixth-year Cal Poly head coach Sofie Aagaard. "As always in our conference, everyone comes to play at the championship and I believe we will be up against Long Beach, Davis and Fullerton in the end."
With the fall season wiped out by the pandemic as well, the Mustangs compressed six tournaments into their spring season against stronger competition than usual and came away with a trio of top-three finishes.
Cal Poly won the season-opening Valley Invitational at Bakersfield, finished second in The Gold Rush at Seal Beach and placed third in the Fresno State Classic earlier this week thanks in part to five individual rounds of par or better, including a 66 by Caroline Cantlay and a 67 by Vanessa Wang.
"We played a very tough schedule this spring both in course set-up and in fields of competition," said Aagaard. "This has challenged our players and pushed them both mentally, strategically and in skills development and performance.
"I hope that we have trained hard enough to see the championship course at Yorba Linda as a scoreable course that will give us some birdies," Aagaard added.
Birdies came in bunches at the Fresno State Classic as the five Mustangs carded 34 birdies over 54 holes.
Cal Poly's quintet for the 2021 conference finals consists of Cantlay, Wang, Elizabeth Scholtes, Nicole Neale and Madi Daniel. Cantlay, Wang and Scholtes all played in the 2019 Big West finals at the Moorpark Country Club, helping the Mustangs to a fifth-place team finish.
Neale, the lone Mustang freshman competing in this year's conference tournament, has compiled a 75.5 scoring average with four top-20 finishes, including a second-place effort in the Valley Invitational.
Cantlay brings a 76.2 scoring average into the Big West finals, Wang 76.3, Scholtes 76.8 and Daniel 81.5. Both Cantlay and Wang earned their third top-20 finish of the season earlier this week.
Aagaard and the Mustangs hope to repeat their success of the 2016-17 season when Cal Poly edged UC Riverside by one stroke for the program's first Big West title at Oak Quarry Golf Club in Riverside and earned a berth in the NCAA's Albuquerque Regional.
"This year has, as everyone knows, been very different from other years of competition, us only having a spring season," said Aagaard. "We loaded up on tournaments and played more regular season events than we ever had.
"With that, I feel like we are well prepared for the championship and, if we do what we have been doing so far this season, I believe this can go our way," Aagaard added. "As always, we need three days of solid good golf as it is a now-or-never situation. The champion of the event will move on to postseason."
The highest ranked players from the Big West according to GolfStat.com are No. 145 Brittany Shin of Cal State Fullerton -- the reigning Big West Golfer of the Month for April after winning the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic -- with an adjusted 73.16 scoring average and No. 180 Jackie Lucena of UC Davis at 73.30. Neither competed in the 2019 Big West finals.
The Yorba Linda Country Club measures 6,235 yards from the women's tees with a par of 72. Tee times range from 7:30 to 9:50 a.m. and spectators will not be allowed at the Big West Championship due to COVID-19 protocols. Live scoring is available here.
Cal Poly will tee off Monday from 7:30 to 8:10 a.m. with players from second-seeded UC Davis and No. 3 Hawai'i.
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly is seeded No. 1 for the 2021 Big West Conference Women's Golf Championship, slated for a three-day run Monday through Wednesday at the Yorba Linda Country Club.
The Mustangs, seeking their first Big West team title since claiming the program's initial conference championship in 2017, are the highest rated squad in the GolfStat.com rankings at No. 82.
Second is UC Davis at No. 109 followed by Hawai'i (118) and Long Beach State (120), which captured back-to-back Big West titles in 2018 and 2019. The 2020 event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The team to beat this year is your Mustangs!" exclaimed sixth-year Cal Poly head coach Sofie Aagaard. "As always in our conference, everyone comes to play at the championship and I believe we will be up against Long Beach, Davis and Fullerton in the end."
With the fall season wiped out by the pandemic as well, the Mustangs compressed six tournaments into their spring season against stronger competition than usual and came away with a trio of top-three finishes.
Cal Poly won the season-opening Valley Invitational at Bakersfield, finished second in The Gold Rush at Seal Beach and placed third in the Fresno State Classic earlier this week thanks in part to five individual rounds of par or better, including a 66 by Caroline Cantlay and a 67 by Vanessa Wang.
"We played a very tough schedule this spring both in course set-up and in fields of competition," said Aagaard. "This has challenged our players and pushed them both mentally, strategically and in skills development and performance.
"I hope that we have trained hard enough to see the championship course at Yorba Linda as a scoreable course that will give us some birdies," Aagaard added.
Birdies came in bunches at the Fresno State Classic as the five Mustangs carded 34 birdies over 54 holes.
Cal Poly's quintet for the 2021 conference finals consists of Cantlay, Wang, Elizabeth Scholtes, Nicole Neale and Madi Daniel. Cantlay, Wang and Scholtes all played in the 2019 Big West finals at the Moorpark Country Club, helping the Mustangs to a fifth-place team finish.
Neale, the lone Mustang freshman competing in this year's conference tournament, has compiled a 75.5 scoring average with four top-20 finishes, including a second-place effort in the Valley Invitational.
Cantlay brings a 76.2 scoring average into the Big West finals, Wang 76.3, Scholtes 76.8 and Daniel 81.5. Both Cantlay and Wang earned their third top-20 finish of the season earlier this week.
Aagaard and the Mustangs hope to repeat their success of the 2016-17 season when Cal Poly edged UC Riverside by one stroke for the program's first Big West title at Oak Quarry Golf Club in Riverside and earned a berth in the NCAA's Albuquerque Regional.
"This year has, as everyone knows, been very different from other years of competition, us only having a spring season," said Aagaard. "We loaded up on tournaments and played more regular season events than we ever had.
"With that, I feel like we are well prepared for the championship and, if we do what we have been doing so far this season, I believe this can go our way," Aagaard added. "As always, we need three days of solid good golf as it is a now-or-never situation. The champion of the event will move on to postseason."
The highest ranked players from the Big West according to GolfStat.com are No. 145 Brittany Shin of Cal State Fullerton -- the reigning Big West Golfer of the Month for April after winning the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic -- with an adjusted 73.16 scoring average and No. 180 Jackie Lucena of UC Davis at 73.30. Neither competed in the 2019 Big West finals.
The Yorba Linda Country Club measures 6,235 yards from the women's tees with a par of 72. Tee times range from 7:30 to 9:50 a.m. and spectators will not be allowed at the Big West Championship due to COVID-19 protocols. Live scoring is available here.
Cal Poly will tee off Monday from 7:30 to 8:10 a.m. with players from second-seeded UC Davis and No. 3 Hawai'i.
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
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