AUBURN, Ala. – In its last tournament, the No. 11 Auburn women's golf team finished seventh in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate. It was the team's first appearance in the tournament and the first time they had played on that golf course.
This weekend, the Tigers return to a tournament they know well – the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate at Long Cove Club (par 71; 6,266 yards) on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
This will mark Auburn's seventh appearance in the nine-year history of the Darius Rucker, and the Tigers are coming off a strong finish in last year's event in which they shot a 291 (+7) on the final day to move up 10 spots to No. 7 on the final leaderboard.
"It's a tournament that we have had good performances," Auburn head coach Melissa Luellen said. "Last year, we played really good the last day. But we've got three players that have never seen the course before. Kaleigh Telfer, Brooke Sansom and Mychael O'Berry have not seen the course. That's always a bit of a challenge, and sometimes it can be a really good thing.
"It's a great field, great tournament. It's just a great opportunity."
Sophomore Julie McCarthy, who did participate in last year's event, will take over the No. 1 spot in the lineup for the Tigers this weekend. On Wednesday, McCarthy was named to the International team for the 2019 Arnold Palmer Cup. She has four straight top-five finishes in tournaments, including a third-place finish in the Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate last month.
Following McCarthy will be O'Berry (No. 2), Sansom (No. 3) and Telfer (No. 4). And rounding out the Auburn contingent is junior Elena Hualde Zúñiga, who also competed at last year's Darius Rucker tournament and posted a 74 (+3) in the final round.
The 17-team field for this year's tournament includes five teams (Duke, UCLA, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, South Carolina) ranked in the top 10 and 12 teams ranked in the top 25.
"The way our schedule has been stacked up – the Sugar Bowl is a great field, Darius Rucker is a great field, Evans Derby is a great field – so I think that's really good for them in preparing for a strong postseason," Luellen said. "We will have seen all these teams. They won't be intimidated by anybody."
The Tigers will begin play Friday and will be paired with No. 19 Florida State and No. 23 Furman for the first round. Live scoring is available on Golfstat.com.