Cal Opens Season At Dick McGuire Invitational
The Cal women's golf team is feeling good about the fall season.
For starters, the Bears are happy they are simply having a fall season.
Cal opens the 2021-22 season this week at the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational at the University of New Mexico's Championship Course, and it will be the Bears first fall event since the Pac-12 Preview in November of 2019. COVID-19 wiped out the 2020 fall season, and head coach Nancy McDaniel says her team is in a much better place than it was last year.
"We've had some great qualifying rounds and have been able to play a lot of golf together, and they were void of any of that last year," McDaniel said. "They were sitting inside and not playing in tournaments. I knew that, but I'm feeling that even more as we start this season and I watch our team compete."
Cal returns its entire roster from last season and adds Florida state high school champion Jieming "Cissy" Yang to the team. Senior Katherine Zhu is back after leading the team in scoring average in each of the past two seasons. Junior Tzu-Yi Chang is the Bears' top qualifier this week.
"We've had a good set of qualifying rounds," McDaniel said. "Our team is starting to resonate a little bit with what's needed. I'm excited about our lineup. We are leaving four players at home who played really well in qualifying, so top to bottom we're really encouraged by the entire team."
The 54-hole Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational runs Monday and Tuesday. Cal is one of 16 teams in the field, including Pac-12 counterparts Oregon State and Colorado.
CAL LINEUP
- Tzu-Yi Chang
- Mika Jin
- Katherine Zhu
- Jieming Yang
- Eun Soo Jeon