No. 1 Washington To Compete At Stanford Invite

STANFORD, Calif. -- No. 1 Washington women's golf will head to the Bay Area this weekend to face an elite field at the Stanford Invitational hosted by Condoleezza Rice. The Dawgs will tee off on Friday for a three-day tournament with 18 holes each day.

The tournament begins at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 17, off holes one and 10. Saturday, the teams will be regrouped based on score for another 8:30 a.m. start. The final round on Sunday will tee off at 7:30 a.m. with groups once again based on score off holes one and 10.

The 17-team field will be one of the best the Dawgs face all season with five top-10 teams. Along with the top-ranked Huskies, No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 Northwestern, No. 6 USC, No. 10 UCLA, No. 12 Pepperdine, No. 23 UC Davis, Arizona State, California, Clemson, Georgia, Harvard, Iowa State, Kentucky, Oregon, Oregon State and San Jose State will compete.

The Huskies will play a five person lineup that will not include their two individual champions from this season. Washington will play Jennifer Yang, Charlotte Thomas, Eimi Koga, Cyd Okino and Ying Luo. SooBin Kim, the 2011 Stanford Invitational champion is scheduled to play as an individual due to some back tightness. Kim is ranked as the No. 1 individual in the country right now by Golfweek, but doesn't want to risk counting for the team should her back act up again. Jing Yan will not compete as she earned a spot in the LPGA event in Hainan Island, China next week.

The Dawgs have showed their depth all season and it will be tested with two of the top amateurs in the world not available.

• Head coach Mary Lou Mulflur is in her 32nd season as the head coach of Washington. She led the Dawgs back to the NCAA Championships last year for the 10th time.
• Senior SooBin Kim won the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational earlier this season by nine strokes. She now has four individual tournament wins, tied for the most all-time at UW. Kim led the Huskies last year in scoring average at 72.00 and was the top finisher at the NCAA Championships where she tied for 16th.
• Washington moved up to No. 1 in the country by Golfweek after winning their home tournament and was recently named No. 1 by Golfstat after backing that up with another win at the Pat Lesser Harbottle Invite.
• Washington returns four players that competed at the 2014 NCAA Championships, Kim, Charlotte Thomas, Jennifer Yang and Ying Luo.
• The Dawgs have two players who advanced to Stage III of LPGA qualifying, Kim and Jing Yan.
• The Huskies finished second at the 2014 NCAA West Regional, falling by just one stroke. At the NCAA Championships, Washington finished 17th.

This is the 18th playing of the Stanford Invitational with USC winning the last two events. Overall, Duke and Arizona State have had the most success with three wins apiece. Each of the past three individual winners of the Stanford Invitational will be in the field. Along with Kim, 2013 champion, Alison Lee of UCLA and 2012 champion, Kyung Kim of USC will compete.