Women's Golf Heads to Hawai'i for Pac-12 Preview

By Lindsay Gaesser, SDA Media Relations

Kona, Hawai’i—In a regular season showdown of the nation’s best women’s golf teams, four of the top-five ranked teams will compete head to head in conference competition in the second annual Pac-12 Preview, Nov. 3-4, at the prestigious par-73, 6,392-yard Nanea Golf Club in Kona, Hawai’i.  The 54-hole event will take place over two days, with 36 holes played on Monday and 18 holes played on Tuesday. 

The stacked field for the Pac-12 Preview features four of the top-five teams in the nation according to Golfweek (Oct. 30).  Arizona State will be joined by first-ranked Washington, Southern California (3), Stanford (4), UCLA (5), in-state rival Arizona (14), Colorado (35), Oregon (36), California (37), Washington State (66), Oregon State (95), and Hawai’i (121).  The University of Hawai’i will compete in the tournament to bring the field to 12 teams. 

Individually, the Pac-12 Conference has 12 golfers ranked in the Golfweek top 25, seven of which are in the top 12.  The talent includes:  top-ranked SooBin Kim of Washington, Annie Park (5, USC), Allison Lee (6, UCLA), Bronte Law (8, UCLA), Kyung Kim (10, USC), Doris Chen (11, USC), Arizona State’s Noemi Jimenez (12), Shannon Aubert (18, Stanford), Manon Gidali (21, Arizona), Mariah Stackhouse (22, Stanford), Jing Yan (23, Washington), and Eimi Koga (24, Washington).  

Some new faces join senior Noemi Jimenez and sophomore Monica Vaughn in the Sun Devil lineup.  Freshmen Roberta Liti, Sophia Zeeb, and Ashleigh Greenham will be golfing in the No. 2, No. 4, and No. 5 spots, respectively.  This will be Greenham’s debut appearance as a Sun Devil. 

Jimenez, ranked 12th in the nation according to Golfweek, has recorded two top-10 finishes in two appearances this fall.  The senior tied for ninth at the Stanford Intercollegiate in October and tied for fifth at the inaugural ANNIKA Intercollegiate back in September. 

The Sun Devils will tee off at 7:30 a.m. HAST/10:30 a.m. MST with Washington, Colorado, and host Hawai’i.  Live scoring for the Pac-12 Preview will be available at Golfstat.com.