UTPA Women’s Golf to Host Lady Bronc Classic Golf Tournament on Tuesday, Wednesday

For Immediate Release: February 5, 2001
Contact: Derek Smolik, UTPA Director of Athletic Media Relations

UTPA Women’s Golf to Host Lady Bronc Classic Golf Tournament on Tuesday, Wednesday

EDINBURG – The University of Texas-Pan American women’s golf team will kick off the 2001 spring season when it hosts the Lady Bronc Classic on Tuesday and Wednesday at The Club at Cimmaron.

The Lady Broncs are the defending champions, having won it’s own tournament for the first time in 2000 for then first-year Head Coach Barb Odale. That will be a tough task to duplicate as this year’s field includes some of the best teams in the region, including Southern Methodist, Lamar, Oral Roberts, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UTEP.

“I’m very excited about the strength of the field of this year’s tournament,” said Odale. “It’s a great opportunity to showcase this area to our regional competition. I expect the girl’s to be competitive and ready to play when they tee it up tomorrow.”

The tournament will consist of three rounds with two round being played on Tuesday and the final round taking place on Wednesday at the Club at Cimmaron in Mission, Texas. Tuesday’s first round will begin with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. and will be followed by the second round in the early afternoon. Play is expected to wrap on Tuesday at about 4 p.m. Wednesday’s final round will also begin at 8 a.m. and should finish by noon.

The Lady Broncs won the 2000 Tournament with a three-round total of 992 to defeat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Jamie McInturff took medallist honors with a three-round total of 239. Kristen MacLaren of UTEP, who fired a 225 to take medallist honors in the 1998 tournament, holds the tournament record for an individual. UTEP also holds the record for low team score with a 937 that same year. UTPA and UTEP have both had two individual winners in the tournament with Nancy Verastegui winning for the Lady Broncs in 1996 and Nicco Chilek taking the title in 1995 for the Miners. UTEP is the only team to win team honors more than once in the five-year history of the tournament.

Newcomers Itziar Unanue and Melissa Head lead the way for the Lady Broncs this season with one top-20 finish each in a tough fall schedule. Also on the team this season are juniors Jeannie Lane and Tootie Lauzon, sophomore Adrianna Espinoza and freshman Crystal Frazier.