We are happy to host the Lady Irish golf team this week.....thanks for coming ladies. Hope they do well, but 3rd place is the best I can hope for after of course the Lady Buckeyes and the home town girls. I've marshalled this event for the last 5 years and never cease to be amazed at the quality of these kids both as players and people.....great games, good kids. Irish Women's Golf In 11th Place After First Round Of The Landfall Tradition Notre Dame's low score carded by sophomore So-Hyun Park's 79. Oct. 24, 2008 WILMINGTON, N.C. - The Notre Dame women's golf team shot a plus-38 (326) in the first round of the 2008 Landfall Tradition tournament, hosted by UNC Wilmington. Sophomore So-Hyun Park (Seoul, South Korea/Bradenton Prep) led the Irish, shooting a plus-seven 79 at the 6,117-yard Jack Nicklaus Pines Course of the Country Club of Landfall. Park, who opened the first round with six consecutive pars, and the Irish are in 11th place.
Irish Golf is good not great. Part of the problem for both mens and womens golf at ND is not just that we are a northern golf program, but that golf has only a few scholarships and not many kids get a full ride. Which means at ND where tution, room and board approach 40K that they have to come up with quite a bit of money on their own if they get a 1/2 scholarship. Compare that to instate tuition at A&M or Texas which will come to 10-12K so a 1/2 scholarship there leaves a number that is a lot easier to handle for the parents. But within the Big East both the mens and womens programs have been pretty competitive so I think the powers that be are very happy with the results. Both mens and womens teams have participated in the NCAA regionals in the last couple of years but not advanced any further. I think that is the best that they can hope for at this time. I remember you said your club hosted a mens tournament as well in the past, is this tournament a substitute for your mens event or will you have both a mens and womens tournament each year?
Our tourney is both men's and women's....the ladies field is actually quite strong. The men is pretty weak. Apparently we are the low man on the totem pole relative to a competing tourney elsewhere same weekend. Lady Buckeyes, Irish, Gators, Stripeheads, Northwestern, UNC, NCST, Wake and Tulsa to go with the hometown kids and ECU and UNC-Greensboro. The mens Iowa, Tulsa, Va Tech, Wisky along with Xavier, WM and Mary, WKY, VCU, Ga Southern, Davidson, ECU and UNCW. 3 or 4 top 25 teams from the gals, not a lot from the fellas. Good golf, good kids in any event.....very humbling for a hack like me to watch these kids pure everything they hit - almost. :wink: