⛳ KU Women’s Golf Opens 2022-23 at Dick McGuire Invitational
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas women’s golf team opens the 2022-23 season at the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational, Sept. 12-13 at the UNM Championship Golf Course in Albuquerque. It will be the second-straight year KU has opened at the Dick McGuire Invitational where the Jayhawks finished seventh in 2021.
In a 17-team field, the 2022 54-hole tournament will consist of a 36-hole shotgun start on Sept 12, at 8:30 a.m. CT. The Jayhawks will conclude the tournament with an 18-hole shotgun start on Sept 13, at 8:30 a.m. CT. The UNM Championship Golf Course has a par 72 and measures 6,354 yards.
“We’re really looking forward to start our season back in New Mexico where we had a strong finish last year,” Kansas second-year head coach Lindsay Kuhle said. “We had a very competitive qualifying tournament to earn spots on the team for this trip and expect that will be the case the entire year.”
Kansas will travel six student-athletes for the Dick McGuire Invitational with senior Pear Pooratanaopa, graduate senior Esme Hamilton, sophomore Jordan Rothman and freshmen Katie Ruge and Anna Shultse. Junior Hanna Hawks will be playing as an individual.
“Our lineup has three upper classmen and three underclassmen, including two freshmen,” Kuhle said. “We are confident with our Labor Day practice trip preparation and the work we’ve put in this week to put up some good scores as we know scores can be low for this event.”
Pooratanaopa is the most veteran returnee for KU having competed in 28 events for her career as a Jayhawk. Pooratanaopa posted a 74.8 per round scoring average last season which tied for the team low. Hamilton is a transfer from Tennessee-Chattanooga where she recorded seven top-10 finishes and was an All-Southern Conference selection in 2020-21.
Rothman enters her second season at KU where she played 28 rounds in 2021-22 with a 75.9 per round scoring average. Ruge, from Omaha, and Shultse, from Moscow, Russia, will be competing in their first collegiate event. Hawks has played in eight tournaments in her two seasons at Kansas, including four in 2021-22.
Joining Kansas at the Dick McGuire Invitational are host New Mexico, Cal Poly, Charlotte, Denver, Fresno State, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Kent State, Northwestern, Ohio State, San Diego State, SMU, Texas Tech, UNLV and USC.
”UNM typically plays more firm and the greens are fast, so we’ve been working a lot on high soft shots around the green, our wedge distance control and lag putting and breaking putts to prepare,” Kuhle said.
Live scoring for the Dick McGuire Invitational will be via Goltstat.com and can be found here.
