ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico women’s golf team has released its schedule for the upcoming 2019-20 season. The Lobos are set to compete in a total of eight regular-season events, four in both the fall and the spring, before heading to the 2020 Mountain West Championships Palm Springs, Calif. in April.
2019-20 LOBO WOMEN’S GOLF SCHEDULE
Among the eight events, UNM will return to five tournaments in which it appeared last season while adding three new additions to the schedule. The Lobos are set to host the 41st annual Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational at the UNM Championship Course, and will also return to the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational (Texas), the Rebel Beach Invitational (UNLV / Long Beach State), the Arizona Wildcat Invitational (Arizona) and the PING / ASU Invitational (Arizona State).
The new additions to the schedule include the Cougar Cup hosted by Washington State, The White Sands Invitational hosted by Houston and the Gunrock Invitational hosted by UC Davis.
UNM will kick off its season at home as the Lobos host the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational on Monday, Sept. 9 through Tuesday, Sept. 10 at the UNM Championship Course. A season ago, the Lobos finished fifth out of 16 squads at the event after former Lobo Darian Zachek tied for second overall and was followed by rising senior Reva Morris, who tied for 19th.
The Lobos will then begin their series of three fall road tournaments as they head to the Cougar Cup on Sept. 16-17 in Pullman, Wash., the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational on Oct. 12-13 in Austin Texas, and The White Sands Invitational on Oct. 28-30 in Nassau, Bahamas to close out their fall slate.
The action will pick back up in the spring as UNM heads to The Rebel Beach Invitational (Feb. 17-18 / Las Vegas, Nev.) followed by The Gunrock Invitational (March 2-3 / Sacramento, Calif.) The squad will then head to the Arizona Wildcat Invitational on March 9-10, the same tournament in which Morris recorded her top finish of last season (15th).
Regular season play will conclude on March 27-29 at the Ping/ASU Invitational in Tempe, Ariz.
The 2020 Mountain West Championships will tee off on Monday, April 20 and continue through Wednesday, April 22 at the Dinah Shore Golf Course at Mission Hills in Palm Springs, Calif. A season ago, rising junior Caroline Jansson led the squad at the conference competition as she carded a top-10 finish with a tie for ninth place.
THE ROSTER…
The 2019-20 roster will return four competitors from last season including the squad’s sole senior Morris, rising junior Caroline Jansson and rising sophomores Tiana Cruz and Kamie Hamada. The Lobos will also have five new additions joining the roster including transfer junior Serena Chon, and freshmen Chloé Lauer, Lauren Lehigh, Napat “Jenny” Lertsadwattana and Alice Rindestig.
Chon joins the squad as a transfer from UC Riverside where she played her freshman and sophomore seasons. The junior competed at the Golfweek Conference Challenge in 2017 where she tied for 19th overall and was named 2014 and 2015 Southwestern League MVP during her high school years.
Among the freshmen joining the squad, Lehigh comes to New Mexico from Loveland, Colo., while Lauer, Lertsadwattana, and Rindestig are all joining the Lobos from overseas. Lehigh was named the 2018 Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado Player of The Year with the help of three wins, seven runner-ups and three third-place finishes on the season.
Lauer, who took home a first-place victory at the French Championship in the 15-16 age division in 2017, comes to New Mexico from L’etang La Ville, France while Lertsadwattana is from Bangkok, Thailand and has represented her home country in multiple events hosted in the United States.
Rindestig, who claimed a second-place finish at the Teen Tour at Kungsangen GC and a third-place finish at the Swedish Junior Classic at Golf Uppsala, will be arriving from Gävle, Sweden.
The Lobos are set to tee off at their home tournament, the Branch Law Firm / Dick McGuire Invitational on Monday, Sept. 9 through Tuesday, Sept. 10 at the UNM Championship Course. While the tournament will be available via Golfstat live scoring, fans are also invited to come out to the course to cheer on the Lobos!