Arkansas golfers head to desert with title hopes

Revealed: Friday, Might 20, 2022

FAYETTEVILLE — The College of Arkansas ladies’s golf group took a blow to their NCAA Championship possibilities when senior Brooke Matthews of Rogers elected to show professional in January.

Then sophomore Cory Lopez’s nagging shoulder harm precipitated her to come back out of the lineup after one spherical on the SEC Championships, because the Razorbacks didn’t advance to match play for the primary time.

But someway the group’s depth got here by means of and Arkansas earned its ticket to the NCAAs with a third-place tie on the NCAA Ann Arbor (Mich.) Regional two weeks in the past.

The Seventeenth-seeded Razorbacks will tee off in the present day at 7:30 a.m. Central within the first spherical of the NCAAs at Grayhawk Golf Membership in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“I believe for a bit without having Brooke round was a bit little bit of a shocker,” Arkansas Coach Shauna Taylor advised the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “Then clearly not having Cory the previous couple of weeks. We’ve been clear. We’ve talked about it and honed in on the message it’s nearly being your self and being you.

“When every particular person is caring for their enterprise and so they’re in a very good head area and so they’ve put within the prep work, we will win and we will do nice issues with any lineup. Our group has lots of depth. This group could be very united.

“Getting this group up to now of the season is unbelievable, and I believe it simply exhibits how … we speak so much about being a race horse, placing on [blinders], and simply do what we do.”

Arkansas will ship out a lineup of junior Kajal Mistry, junior Julia Gregg, junior Ela Anacona, sophomore Miriam Ayora and freshman Ffion Tynan. Anacona positioned fifth on the NCAA regional, whereas Gregg completed fifteenth and Ayora nineteenth. Freshman Giovanna Fernandez traveled to Arizona because the alternate.

The Razorbacks are within the championships for the twelfth time, and the ninth time below Taylor, who scheduled the Razorbacks within the Mountain View Collegiate in Tucson, Ariz., in March to get used to a special type of golf. Arkansas got here in seventh place out of 16 groups in Tucson.

The Razorbacks did a walk-through of the 6,383-yard Raptor Course in Scottsdale on Wednesday, then acquired of their follow spherical on Thursday.

“At the moment was simply type of ensuring we picked good targets,” Taylor stated. “We’ve acquired recreation plan. … We’ve acquired begin time, going at 7:30 within the desert warmth.”

The Razorbacks performed with high-grass roughs nearly all season, however at Grayhawk not being within the fairway means being in cactus, scrub, rocks and sand.

“I believe tee balls are every part,” Taylor stated. “Tee balls out right here put you in place to attain. That’s a giant a part of desert golf. It’s not lots of tough. So should you miss it you’re within the desert.

“That’s one of many causes we got here out right here within the spring and performed a match. It’s a bit completely different. … It’s simply going to be premium hitting it within the fairway, as a result of from the golf green I believe you’ll be able to rating round this place.”

Stanford is the highest seed on the championships, adopted by Oregon, South Carolina, Wake Forest and San Jose State within the high 5.

Arkansas will play off the No. 1 tee with a pair of SEC groups in Auburn and Texas A&M.

The Razorbacks, Tigers and Aggies are among the many 11 colleges whose ladies’s and males’s groups certified for the NCAA championships. They’re joined by fellow SEC colleges Georgia and Vanderbilt, Wake Forest of the Atlantic Coast Convention, Oklahoma State and Texas of the Huge 12, and Arizona State, Oregon and Stanford of the Pac-12.

Defending NCAA champion Ole Miss, which took down Oklahoma State 4-1 within the ultimate, just isn’t again to defend its title after ending sixth on the NCAA Tallahassee (Fla.) Regional on Might 11.