April 21, 2013
Pac-12 Championship Central | Pac-12 Records Book
LIVE SCORING | 2012-13 ASU Golf Stats
VALENCIA, Calif.--The 12th-ranked Arizona State women's golf team looks to add a record ninth conference title to its collection as the team competes at the 2012 Pac-12 Championships at the Valencia Country Club, Apr. 22-24, in Valencia, Calif. Arizona State currently holds the Pac-12 for most conference titles with eight.
The Conference Championships, hosted by UCLA, will be held at the par-72, 6,300-yard Valencia Country Club. The Sun Devils are the fifth-seeded team heading into competition and will compete on Monday with eighth-seed California starting at 8:38 a.m. off the 10th tee. Seeding of teams for the Championship is determined by an average of the Golfstat, GolfWorld and Golfweek rankings. USC received the top seed overall. For the second and third rounds teams will be seeded by score.
The field for the Pac-12 Championships features six teams ranked in the top-15 of the Golfstat rankings, the most for any conference. The event also sports eight individual players ranked in the top-20 in the nation, including ASU sophomore Noemi Jimenez who is continuing to have a break out spring.
Jimenez, ranked ninth in the nation by Golfweek, holds a team-low 71.78 scoring average on the season through 23 rounds of golf. In March she was named Golfweek player of the week for her back-to-back victories at the Cal Classic and the Darius Rucker Invitational. Jimenez was the first Sun Devil to earn back-to-back individual titles since Louise Stahle in 2005 and currently has five top-10 finishes in eight appearances.
Juniors Laura Blanco and Daniela Ordonez each closed out ASU's own PING/ASU Invitational in a tie for 10th place to lead the Sun Devils. Blanco is on a two-tournament streak of top-10 finishes and shot a career-low 67 in the final round of the Spring Break Classic in Hawai'i to vault the junior into a tie for fifth place. Ordonez has three top-10 finishes this season, including started the season with a second-place finish at the Dale McNamara Invitational, a tournament named for legendary Tulsa coach and mother to head coach Melissa Luellen.
The Sun Devils are also eager to have 2012 honorable mention All-American Justine Lee back in the line-up after a wrist injury forced her to sit out much of the fall and early spring competition. Lee looked back in competition form at the PING/ASU Invitational shooting a season-low 69 in the second round. Sophomore Emilie Alonso will also look to contribute to another Sun Devil title. In her first year competing as part of the line-up, Alonso recorded two top-10 finishes in the fall including capping off a ninth place finish at the Stanford Intercollegiate with a career-low 68.
Under Luellen, the Sun Devils won the Pac-12 title in 2007 and 2009. The Sun Devils were a top the leader board in 2010 until two golfers came down with food poisoning and were forced with withdraw from the team competition. In fantastic fashion the remaining three golfers, Carlota Ciganda, Juliana Murcia and Jennifer Johnson finished 1-2-3 in the individual competition. Murcia and Ciganda actually tied for first, but were mandated to move into a play off rather than to be named co-Pac-12 Champions. With her individual win in 2009 and 2010, Ciganda is the only player in Conference history to win back-to-back Pac-12 titles. ASU golfer also won two Pac-12 titles, non-consecutively, in 1993 and 1995.
The Pac-12 Tournament also serves as the Territorial Cup point for golf. Ever since the team was unable to compete in 2010, the point for golf has been in the hands of the Wildcats, something the team is eager to change this week in Valencia. Currently ASU leads UA 7.5-5.5 in the Territorial Cup Standings with No. 22 women's tennis' victory, Saturday.
Live scoring for the tournament is available at www.golfstat.com.
Tee Times
FIRST ROUND Monday, April 22
No. 6 Stanford, No. 4 Washington
1st Tee - 8:30 a.m./8:38 a.m./8:46 a.m./8:54 a.m./9:02 a.m.
No. 5 Arizona State, No. 8 California
10th Tee - 8:38 a.m./8:38 a.m./8:46 a.m./8:54 a.m./9:02 a.m.
No. 1 USC, No. 11 Colorado
1st Tee - 9:10 a.m./9:18 a.m./9:26 a.m./9:34 a.m./9:42 a.m.
No. 9 Washington State, No. 3 UCLA, No. 7 Oregon
10th Tee - 9:50 a.m./9:58 a.m./10:06 a.m./10:14 a.m./10:22 a.m.
No. 2 Arizona, No. 10 Oregon State
1st Tee - 9:50 a.m./9:58 a.m./10:06 a.m./10:14 a.m./10:22 a.m.
Following the first round, seedings and pairings will be determined by team scores.
SECOND ROUND Tuesday, April 23
Seeds 5 and 6- 1st Tee - 8:30 a.m.
Seeds 7 and 8- 10th Tee - 8:30 a.m.
Seeds 3 and 4 - 1st Tee - 9:10 a.m.
Seeds 9, 10 and 11- 10th Tee - 9:10 a.m.
Seeds 1 and 2- 1st Tee - 9:50 a.m.
THIRD ROUND Wednesday, April 24
Seeds 5 and 6 - 1st Tee - 8 a.m.
Seeds 7 and 8- 10th Tee - 8 a.m.
Seeds 3 and 4 - 1st Tee - 8:40 a.m.
Seeds 9, 10 and 11- 10th Tee - 8:40 a.m.
Seeds 1 and 2- 1st Tee - 9:20 a.m.