AUSTIN, Texas -- The University of Texas women's golf program has landed the No. 10 seed and will host the 2008 NCAA Central Regional Championship from May 8-10 at the par 72, 6,344-yard University of Texas Golf Club. Texas will make its first team appearance in NCAA postseason play since 2006, when the Horns placed 11th at the NCAA Central Regional Championship in Bryan, Texas.
"We are really excited about hosting and participating in the NCAA Central Regional Championship at our home course, The University of Texas Golf Club," first-year UT coach Martha Richards said. "It's an honor for our program to welcome an outstanding group of teams and individuals to Austin. We look forward to hosting what we feel will be an exciting event next week."
Texas will welcome 20 teams and three individuals to the UT Golf Club for the 54-hole event, which features three top-10 teams -- No. 2 UCLA, No. 6 Purdue and No. 8 Alabama -- and a total of nine teams featured in the latest GolfWorld/NGCA Division I Coaches' Poll. UT also will welcome Big 12 Conference rivals Texas A&M and Texas Tech, as well as in-state foes TCU and Texas State, who earned the automatic bid from the Southland Conference.
The top eight team finishers and top two individuals not playing on the eight qualifying teams will earn bids to compete at the 2008 NCAA Women's Golf Championship from May 20-23 in Albuquerque, N.M. Texas made its most recent team appearance at the NCAA Championship in 2004, when the Horns tied for sixth place overall. Current UT senior Julia Best and Texas-Ex Devan Andersen competed at the 2006 NCAA Championship as individuals.
Texas wrapped up a productive 2007-08 season on Sunday, April 27, when it placed third at the Big 12 Championship in Stillwater, Okla. The Longhorns added top-five finishes throughout the season at the Cougar Classic (3rd place, Sept. 9-11), the Central District Invitational (5th place, Feb. 18-19), the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational (3rd place, March 17-19) and the Indiana Invitational (4th place, April 7-8).
All spectators are invited FREE OF CHARGE to the UT Golf Club for the NCAA Central Regional Championship. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings, the first round of golfers will tee off at 8 a.m. Central and the second (afternoon) group will tee off at 12:30 p.m. Texas will tee off on Thursday, May 8 at 8:10 a.m. off of the 10th tee and will open the second round on Friday, May 9 at 12:30 p.m. off of the first tee.
An awards ceremony will conclude the event on Saturday afternoon at the UT Golf Club pavilion area. Due to NCAA Championship regulations and policies, there will not be carts available for spectator usage during the NCAA Central Regional Championship.
NCAA Central Regional Championships Field
Teams:
1. UCLA
2. Purdue (Big Ten Conference automatic qualifier)
3. Alabama
4. Denver (Sun Belt Conference automatic qualifier)
5. Kent State (Mid-American Conference automatic qualifier)
6. Pepperdine
7. LSU
8. Texas A&M
9. Notre Dame (Big East Conference automatic qualifier)
10. Texas
11. TCU
12. Florida State
13. North Carolina State
14. East Tennessee State (Atlantic Sun Conference automatic qualifier)
15. Texas Tech
16. Washington
17. Nebraska
18. Harvard (Ivy Group automatic qualifier)
19. Texas State (Southland Conference automatic qualifier)
20. Illinois State (Missouri Valley Conference automatic qualifier)
21. Fairleigh Dickinson (Northeast Conference automatic qualifier)
Individuals:
1. Steffi Kirchmayr, College of Charleston
2. Sara Wikstrom, Arkansas-Little Rock
3. Araceli Felgueroso, Coastal Carolina
