The Murray State Racers learned of their NCAA Women’s Golf Championship assignment Monday when they were assigned to the Lubbock, Texas regional. The Racers will compete over three days (May 8-10) at the Rawls Course at Texas Tech. The NCAA field was announced on the Golf Channel’s Morning Drive program.
The Racers’ NCAA visit will be their fourth and first since 2014 when they played in Tallahassee, Fla. MSU’s first appearance in 2009 was in Columbus, Ohio and in 2010, they played in Columbus, Indiana.
Coach Velvet Milkman’s team is coming off their 10th Ohio Valley Conference championship when they scored a 10-shot victory in Owens Cross Roads, Alabama at Hampton Cove. MSU’s record-breaking score of 876 helped them to their fourth-straight win and sixth win of the season, both program records.
“We’re thrilled to be going to the NCAA women’s golf championship representing Murray State and the Ohio Valley Conference,” Milkman said. “I know our team has been working hard to get ready and now that we know where we’re going, it comes down to being prepared to play our best and put ourselves into a spot where we can advance to the finals.”
In order to advance, the Racers (the 15th seed) will be competing against 17 other squads in Lubbock. When 54 holes are completed, MSU hopes to be in the top six teams to advance to the NCAA finals. In four regional sites, there are a total of 72 teams and 24 individuals competing. Each regional features 18 teams and six individuals. From each of these four regionals, the low six teams and the low three individuals not on those teams advance to the national championships (May 19-24) at Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, Illinois. The other three NCAA regionals are Columbus, Ohio (Ohio State’s Scarlet Course), Athens, Ga. (University of Georgia Course) and Albuquerque, N.M. (University of New Mexico Championship Course).
The Racers are led by two-time OVC medalist and 2017 OVC Golfer of the Year Moa Folke. Linette Holmslykke and Lucila Puente Rodriguez de Austria joined Folke as All-OVC selections. Anna Moore and Raeysha Surendran make up the rest of the MSU starting five.
NCAA Women’s Golf – Lubbock Regional
Host-Texas Tech University
Rawls Course
Lubbock, Texas
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Seed & Participating Teams
1 University of California, Los Angeles (Pac-12 Conference)
2 Arizona State University
3 Furman University (Southern Conference)
4 Kent State University (Mid-American Conference)
5 University of Texas at Austin (Big 12 Conference)
6 University of Oklahoma
7 Brigham Young University
8 San Diego State University
9 Texas Tech University
10 Texas Christian University
11 University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Mountain West Conference)
12 University of Oregon
13 Iowa State University
14 Oregon State University
15 Murray State University (Ohio Valley Conference)
16 Georgetown University (Big East Conference)
17 University of Richmond (Patriot League)
18 Sacred Heart University (Northeast Conference)
Participating Individuals
Caroline Nistrup-Louisiana State University
Malene Krolboll Hansen-Coastal Carolina University
Lois Kaye Go-Boston College
Alivia Brown-Washington State University
Jakeishya Le-University of California, Riverside
Katrina Prendergast-Colorado State University
About the Rawls Course at Texas Tech
Located in Lubbock, TX. It was a most unlikely place for renowned golf course architect Tom Doak to follow up his Oregon masterpiece Pacific Dunes: a flat cotton field in Lubbock, Texas. And yet, on the high plains of the West Texas panhandle, where the sky is big and blue, the wind is unabated and the land is dry and flat, Doak created the Rawls Course for Texas Tech University, immediately one of the finest university courses in the country.
A minimalist by reputation, Doak and his team from Renaissance Golf stepped out of that role for this design, moving 1.3 million yards of topsoil to sculp a course described by the architect as “probably the most complicated we’ve done to date.” Creating an entire landscape from scratch, they shaped the earth to mimic the land east and south of Lubbock, where the great plain suddenly starts falling into the valleys and canyons that lead to the Caprock region. The result is a 7,207-yard, par-72, feat of engineering that fully exemplifies Doak’s philosophies on design and strategy, most notably the unusually wide fairways and boldly contoured greens.
Dave Winder
Murray State Athletics – Assistant AD – Media Relations