Women's Golf Enters Golfstat, Golfweek Top 50
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – For the first time since the 2004-05 season, the University of Miami women’s golf team cracked the Top 50 in both Golfstat and Golfweek‘s collegiate women’s golf polls. Listed as No. 45/50, the Hurricanes have recorded seven Top-10 finishes this season, including sixth place or better in all of 2013’s spring competitions.
“We’re very excited about this,” third-year head coach Patti Rizzo said. “We’re only three years into revamping the program, and since (assistant) coach Koskinen and I have taken the reigns, we’ve climbed over 100 spots.”
Beginning the season at No. 74/78, the Canes have been steadily climbing the rankings behind the school record-setting clubs of an underclassmen-laden team. The 2012-13 version have set school marks such as the second- and sixth-lowest 54-hole scores of 877 and 888, respectively.
No other Miami squad since 2005 has recorded more than six rounds with a score of 300 or better; this team has 10. With two events remaining and a possible berth into the NCAA Regionals, the Canes are within earshot of breaking the 26-year-old mark of 12 set in 1987.
“It has a lot to do with the good team karma we’ve been having,” Rizzo said. “We have great camaraderie and we know the potential for great is there.”
The team is currently led by sophomores Leticia Ras-Anderica and Rika Park, who have each placed in the Top 10 twice and combine for eight Top-25 performances this season.
“We’ve been playing in good events where some of the top teams have been and by beating them we’ve been able to raise our ranking,” Ras-Anderica said. “Golf is an individual sport, but in college it’s all about being a team. We all support and help each other out and we all know what we want to achieve.
“When someone isn’t playing well, we have each other’s back,” Ras-Anderica continued. “It’s up to the rest of us to hold the team together. That’s what we have been doing this year.”
Ras-Anderica, with a team-low 74.23 stroke average, entered Golfstat’s Top 100 collegiate golfers list this week. Through 26 rounds, she’s notched 60 birdies, ranking her 27th nationally in that category, and her fairway percentage of .897 is the sixth-best in the country. She is currently on pace for having the fifth-best stroke average in Miami history, just ahead of current head coach and two-time collegiate golf All-American Patti Rizzo‘s 74.32.
Park, a native of Fujieda Shi-Shizouka, Japan, is second on the team with a 74.52 stroke average. She ranks 19th nationally with pars-per-round at 12.04, and has a par-5 average of 4.95 this year.
The Canes will compete in the final tournament of the regular season March 31-April 2 at the SDSU Farms Invitational in San Diego, before traveling to Greensboro, N.C., for the ACC Championship.
