Women’s Golf Announces 2016-17 Schedule

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

Women’s Golf Announces 2016-17 Schedule

DALLAS (SMU) – Head coach Jeanne Sutherland and the SMU women's golf program have released the 2016-17 schedule, which features the first annual Trinity Forest Invitational hosted by the Mustangs at the team's new facility in Dallas.

The slate features 10 regular-season tournaments before the Ponies take on the field at the American Athletic Conference Championship April 16-18 in Palm Coast, Florida. Postseason action also includes NCAA Regionals May 8-10 and NCAA Championships May 19-24 in Sugar Grove, Illinois, based on qualification.

"This is the best schedule we've put together since our staff has been here," Sutherland said. "We work to improve it each and every year and the only way to do that is by raising our level of play and competing with the best in the country."

SMU opens action Sept. 12 & 13 at the Mercedes Benz Collegiate Championship hosted by the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, followed by its second tournament in September, the Mason Rudolph Championship (Sept. 16- 18) hosted by Vanderbilt.

October features the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational (Oct. 17 & 18) and Alamo Invitational (Oct. 23-25), a pair of tournaments from the 2015-16 schedule. SMU finished seventh in the 14-team field at the Longhorn Invitational with Jenny Haglund and Lindsey McCurdy finishing inside the top 10 on the individual leaderboard. At UTSA's Alamo Invite, Haglund and Katie Page tied for sixth, leading the Mustangs to a fourth place finish.

The 2016 portion of the schedule finishes with the inaugural Trinity Forest Invitational. SMU will host the first collegiate tournament at the course Nov. 7 & 8.

Following the winter break, 2017 opens with a pair of February tournaments hosted by AAC opponents UCF (Feb. 5-7) and Houston (Feb. 27 & 28).

A trip to Hawaii is on the schedule March 14 & 15 for the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational, and the Mustangs return to the mainland for the LSU Tiger Golf Classic March 24-26. The final tune-up before the conference tournament takes the Ponies to the 2017 Ping/ASU Invitational at Arizona State April 7-9.

"We really accomplished several of our goals with this schedule," Sutherland added. "We're able to see a variety of courses, some in the east and some in the west, and we will play on all types of grasses. There are also four tournaments in Texas, which helps us accomplish the goal to not only play in Texas, but recruit Texans to SMU."

The Mustangs concluded the 2015-16 season with their fourth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance and had three players selected to the AAC All-Conference team, including Freshman of the Year Brigitte Dunne. The team also returns all-league pick McCurdy. In all, SMU returns four letterwinners from a season ago and adds three newcomers to the roster.