Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2019 - 21

any women's college tournament,
other than the NCAA
Championships.
" Well, obviously anything that
has any connection with Annika
Sorenstam is going to be a pretty
big draw, " Gophers head coach
Michele Redman notes. " But
the main reason the tournament
gets the fi eld that it does is that
there's a banquet that goes with
the tournament, and that's where
they give out the awards for the
previous season, including the
Annika Award for the player of
the year. "
In 2017, the Annika was played at Olympic Hills. Fassi
won the individual competition and led Arkansas to the team
championship. Last year, the tournament moved to the Royal
Golf Club in Lake Elmo. The course, co-designed by Sorenstam
and Arnold Palmer, is the tournament's new permanent site.
The top four teams in the national rankings-No. 1 USC, No.
2 Texas, No. 3 Duke and No. 4 Stanford-were there. Ten of the
top 12 teams were in the fi eld. It's a testament to the quality of
the fi eld that the defending champion, Fassi, could do no better
than a tie for 25th.
Patty Tavatanakit, a sophomore from UCLA, put on a sensational
show by shooting 63 in the fi nal round to win the
individual medal by a stroke over USC All-American Malia
Nam. Fassi's Arkansas teammate Dylan Kim fi nished third, and
Duke's Ana Belic took fourth. Stanford sophomore Andrea Lee,
the No. 1-ranked college player in the country for most of the
2018-19 season, fi nished fi fth.
The Minnesota women's team hosts a second tournament
in the fall, the season-opening
Minnesota Invitational
at
Prestwick Golf Course. San Jose
State will defend the title it won
last fall. Last year's second-place
fi nisher, Virginia Tech, will also
be back.
Grace Kellar, who tied for third
at Prestwick last year, was the
Gophers'
top-ranked player in
2018-19. She has two years of eligibility
remaining. Muyu Wu, the
second-highest ranked Gopher,
was a senior, and so was Maggie
Heggerston.
Joanne Free, Karen Zhang, Jessica
Lee, Christine Portillo and Alayna
Eldrid will all be back, along with
a strong recruiting class.
mngolf.org
LINCOLN
JOHNSON
GRACE KELLER
Minnesota's men's team also
hosts a fall tournament with a
distinguished history. The inaugural
Gopher Invitational was
contested in 2005 at Spring Hill.
Niall Turner was the medalist, and
his efforts helped Minnesota tie
Washington for fi rst place. Both
teams fi nished in the top 10 at the
NCAA Championships that season,
the Gophers taking third and the
Huskies ninth.
In 2006, Stanford started its season
by winning at Spring Hill and
concluded it by winning the NCAA
tournament. The individual winner
was SMU's Colt Knost. He went on to join a select group of
golfers who have claimed multiple USGA titles in a single year
by winning both the U.S. Public Links Championship and the
U.S. Amateur in 2007. Another future U.S. Amateur champion,
SMU's Kelly Kraft, won the 2009 Gopher Invitational.
In 2013, the Gopher Invitational moved to its current home,
Windsong Farm, which, like Spring Hill, is a genuinely diffi cult
golf course. It's a par-72 course disguised as a par-71, with a
couple of ferociously tough par 4s in the middle of the back
nine (Nos. 14 and 15).
Oklahoma hasn't seemed to notice. The Sooners, winners of
the 2017 NCAA Championship, have won three of the last four
Gopher Invitationals. Last fall, they set the tournament record
for lowest winning score with an aggregate of 847, 5 under par.
Texas, another perennial top-10 team in the national rankings,
fi nished second, three behind.
" I'm amazed by the scores they shot, " Minnesota coach John
Carlson marveled this spring. " But that's true of college golf
generally.
Justin [Gophers assistant
But Kate Lillie,
coach Justin Smith] and I were just
talking about that. The courses keep
getting harder, but the scores keep getting
lower. Look at what our two guys
[Lincoln Johnson and Evan Long] did
in last year's tournament. They shot
214 (1 over) and tied for 11th. Twofourteen
is a great score at a course as
tough as Windsong. In the old days,
when Justin and I were playing, they
might have won with those scores,
and they almost certainly would have
been in the top three. But they didn't
even get into the top 10. It just shows
you how high the level of golf was in
that tournament. "
(Carlson played at Wisconsin from
1997 to 2001, winning three times,
Summer 2019 MINNESOTAGOLFER
21
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Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2019

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