April 6, 2017
| 2016-17 Auburn Women's Golf - Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic | |
| Dates | Friday-Sunday, April 6-8 |
| Location | UGA Golf Course (Par 72, 6,300 yards) | Athens, Ga. |
| Format | 18 holes of stroke-play qualifying, followed by three team matches |
| Field | Auburn, Alabama, Arkansas, Daytona State, Denver, Georgia, Oklahoma State, Old Dominion, Purdue, Southern Cal, South Carolina, Troy |
| Online | Live Scoring | Twitter: @AuburnWGolf | Auburn Season Stats |
| Tee Times | Friday: 8:50 a.m. CT, No. 10 tee (paired with Troy) Saturday/Sunday: TBD |
| Auburn's Lineup | |
| Elena Hualde Freshman Pamplona, Spain (1) | Michaela Owen Junior Suwanee, Ga. (2) | Kelli Murphy Junior Elgin, S.C. (3) | Kayley Marschke Freshman Suwanee, Ga. (4) | Mai Dechathipat Sophomore Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. (5) |
Sophomore
Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.
(Individual)
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AUBURN, Ala. -- The Auburn women's golf team heads to Athens, Ga., for its final tournament of the 2016-17 regular season this weekend as the Tigers compete in the 45th annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic.
The tournament runs Friday-Sunday at the University of Georgia Golf Course (par 72, 6,300 yards). The Tigers, ranked No. 39 by Golfweek and No. 40 by Golfstat, join 11 other teams in this year's event, with six of the 12 ranked in the nation's top 25.
In a unique format now in its fourth year, the tournament emulates the NCAA Championship in that the teams will play 18 holes of stroke-play qualifying Friday, followed by three team matches on the weekend. The results from qualifying will be used to seed the 12 teams into a match-play bracket -- the top eight teams will compete in the "Red" bracket for the tournament championship, and the remaining four teams will play in the round-robin "Black" bracket.
Freshman Elena Hualde takes the top spot in Auburn's lineup this week, followed by juniors Michaela Owen and Kelli Murphy, freshman Kayley Marschke and sophomore Mai Dechathipat. Hualde leads the Tigers with a 72.60 scoring average and is ranked No. 76 in the nation by Golfweek.
Murphy makes her third appearance at the Liz Murphey while Owen and Dechathipat will play in Athens for the second time. Murphy has won a match in each of her previous appearances, and Owen -- who tied for fourth in the stroke-play qualifying with a 71 (-1) - won a pair of matches last season to help Auburn clinch wins over Arkansas and Oregon State. Dechathipat also picked up a match-play win against Oregon State.
Auburn joins four SEC foes -- top-ranked Alabama, No. 8 Georgia, No. 11 South Carolina and No. 16 Arkansas -- in this week's field, along with No. 2 Southern Cal, No. 19 Oklahoma State and No. 22 Purdue. Denver, Old Dominion, Troy, and top-ranked junior college team Daytona State round out the field.
The Tigers are competing in this event for the 30th time in the last 31 years. Auburn won the event in 1989, 2007 and 2009. Last year, Auburn won two of its three matches in the "Black" bracket, defeating Arkansas and Oregon State while falling to Duke.
Auburn will be paired with Troy for Friday's stroke-play qualifying round with the first tee times set for 8:50 a.m. CT on the 10th hole. Live scoring will be available at birdiefire.com.