LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas women’s golf will open the 2023 spring season hosting the Match in the Desert at the Prospector Course at Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club in Superstition Mountain, Arizona on Monday, January 23.
The Prospector Course measures 6,394 yards with a par of 72. The six-team tournament field will be scored as a one-day stroke event totaling 18 holes.
Five of the six teams in the field rank in the top 30 in the country, according to the latest Golfstat rankings released after the 2022 fall season. Those include No. 13 Arizona, No. 15 Arizona State, No. 22 UCLA, No. 24 Baylor and No. 30 TCU.
“We are doing a PAC 12 vs Big 12 challenge this year with three teams from each conference,” Kansas head coach Lindsay Kuhle said.
As well as a team and individual champion, a conference champion will be determined by the best 12 of 15 scores from each conference. The winning conference will be awarded a trophy.
“We just feel that it is a very strong field and that’s one thing when we host, we try to host the best teams in the country and we feel that we did a great job of that this week,” Kuhle said. “It’s very competitive to start the season, just an 18 hole round to kind of ease into the season but great competition and exactly what we want here at KU.”
Super-senior Esme Hamilton, sophomores Johanna Ebner and Jordan Rothman, freshmen Lauren Clark and Anna Shultse will represent Kansas in Arizona. Additionally, KU super-senior Abby Glynn will be playing as an individual.
Ebner posted one top-five finish and led KU in the fall with a 74.1 per round scoring average. Ebner ended the fall ranked 96th individually according to Golfstat. Hamilton and Rothman both posted a top-10 finish placing in ninth at the Dick McGuire Invitational with both shooting a fall season low of 1-under. Hamilton had a 75.4 per round scoring average in the fall, while Rothman had a 74.6. Shultse will be competing in her fourth tournament as a Jayhawk and Clark her third. As a team, Kansas finished 15th or better in all five fall tournaments with two top-10 finishes and one top-five placing.
Live stats for the Match in the Desert can be found via Golfstat.
