Women?s Golf Begins Season Sunday at Cougar Classic

CLEMSON- The Clemson women’s golf team kicks off it’s fall season Sunday, Sept. 14, at the Cougar Classic in Hanahan, S.C. The 54-hole event, held at the Yeamans Hall Club, will run through Tuesday.

This is the second year in a row J.T. Horton’s team will begin the season in the Cougar Classic. Last year, in the first tournament in program history, the Tigers finished a strong  second, just one shot behind winner Florida.

Competing for the 22^nd ranked (Golfweek) Tigers are sophomores Lauren Salazar, Jessica Hoang and Sloan Shanahan, and freshmen Marisa Messana and Riley Lovorn.  Sophomore McKenzie Talbert will compete as an individual.

Shanahan is the top returning player for the Tigers.   The native of Suwanee, Ga. had a 73.97 stroke average as a rookie and was named first-team All-ACC. She finished tied for second in the Cougar Classic last season.

Salazar finished last season with a 75.56 stroke average, fourth best on the team for the year, but she was the only Tiger with three top 10 finishes in the spring.  She was the leader in the team qualifying for this tournament and will play the number-one position. Hoang is a third returning starter from 2014 who will be in the starting lineup this weekend.  She ranked fifth in the nation in percentage of drives in the fairway at .913.

The field consists of 10 of the top 25 teams from the 2013-14 season. Twenty-one teams are participating in the event, including six ACC teams and seven SEC teams. Representing the ACC are Duke, Clemson, North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest and Virginia. Representing the SEC are Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Mississippi State, Georgia and Missouri.

Other teams participating are UCLA, the 2011 national champion, host school College of Charleston, Central Florida, Baylor, Wisconsin, Penn State, Maryland, and Indiana.

In the opening round on Sunday Clemson will play with Georgia and Baylor. The group will go off the first hole in the afternoon wave with tee times from 11:55 a.m. to 12:31 p.m. In Monday’s second round Clemson will again play with Georgia and Baylor, but will play in the morning round and begin off the 10^th hole from 8 a.m. to 8:36 a.m.

Talbert will tee off at 12:40 p.m. on Sunday and 9:21 a.m. on Monday. Tuesday’s tee times will depend on teams’ standings in the tournament through two rounds.

The three-day event can be followed on golfstat.com. The address of the Yeamans Hall Club is 900 Yeamans Hall Road, Hanahan, S.C. 29410.