April 1, 2002
TEMPE, Ariz. - The Arizona State women's golf team returns to action this weekend as the team plays host to the 2002 PING/ASU Invitational Friday-Sunday, April 5-7 at the par 72, 6,122-yard Karsten Golf Course. The Sun Devils will be looking to capture their first win in the PING/ASU Invitational since 1999 when the team built a 20-stroke lead (884) to capture the tournament title and ASU All-American Grace Park took home individual medalist honors.
The PING/ASU Invitational has been held each year since 1965-66, while Arizona State has won the tournament in 22 of the 36 years it has been held. Last year, USC captured the PING/ASU Invitational championship with a three-day total of 25-over 889, while Stanford's Stephanie Keever won individual medalist honors with an even-par 216.
CONSISTENTLY TOP 10: Arizona State has turned in top 10 finishes in all seven events it has competed in this season, finishing in the top eight in each event. After leading the nation in team scoring average in the fall at 294.75, the Sun Devils are averaging 299.64 strokes per round this spring. ASU is still looking for its first outright tournament win of the year after tying for first and losing in a tiebreaker to Baylor at the New Mexico State Intercollegiate in October and finishing second to Kansas State by four strokes at the Mountain View Classic on March 23-24.
IN THE RANKINGS: Arizona State checked in at 11th in the March 27 Golfweek/Sagarin rankings and eighth in the March 29 Golf World poll. Individually, sophomore Jimin Kang is the highest ranked Sun Devil, appearing at 15th in the Golfweek individual poll. Junior Ga?lle Truet, who is coming off a runner-up finish in the Mountain View Collegiate, is ranked 53rd, while fellow junior Blair O'Neal appears at 78th in the national rankings.
THE PING/ASU INVITATIONAL FORMAT: 18 holes will be played on Friday and Saturday, April 5-6 beginning at 8 a.m. MST from tees No. 1 and No. 10. Sunday's final round on April 7 will begin at 8 a.m. with a shotgun start. Second- and third-round pairings are based on team total and individual total within the team. Team ties will be broken by the highest score, while players tied within a team will utilize the previous day's position. The top four scores from each five-person team will count toward the team score.
THE FIELD: This year's PING/ASU Invitational will feature 15 teams, 13 ranked in the top 50 in the March 27 Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings. The field includes 10 of the top 25 teams in the nation in No. 3 Tulsa, No. 4 Texas, No. 8 Arizona, No. 11 Arizona State, No. 14 USC, No. 16 Washington, No. 18 UCLA, No. 20 California, No. 22 New Mexico State and No. 23 New Mexico. The rest of the field is made up of No. 27 TCU, No. 31 Stanford, No. 39 San Jose State, Oregon and Oregon State. The field of individuals is just as distinguished featuring 14 players who are ranked in the Golfweek Top 50, including the nation's top two golfers, Lorena Ochoa of Arizona and Stacy Prammanasudh of Tulsa.
LAST TIME OUT: Junior Ga?lle Truet cracked the top five for the first time in her career, finishing in a tie for second to lead Arizona State to a runner-up finish at the Mountain View Collegiate, held March 23-24 at the par 72, 5,934-yard Mountain View Golf Course in Tucson, Ariz. The Sun Devils turned in their third top five showing of the season, finishing second with a two-day total of 601, just four strokes off the lead of Kansas State (597).
For the Sun Devils, Truet carded the only sub-par round of the day with a two-under 70 on Sunday to finish in a tie for second with Long Beach State's Marie Louise Juul at two-over par 146 (76-70), two strokes behind individual medalist Walailak Satarak of UC Irvine. Junior Blair O'Neal tied for 10th in her third top 10 showing of the season at nine-over 153, while sophomore Jimin Kang (154) and junior Melanie Hunt (155) tied for 15th and 23rd, respectively. Rounding out the Sun Devil lineup was freshman Josefin Gustafsson who climbed from 55th to 32nd with a one-over 73 on Sunday and a two-day total of 157.
MICKEY YOKOI: Head coach Mickey Yokoi (pronounced YO-koy) is currently his first season as at the helm of the Sun Devil women's program after spending the last five years as an assistant coach for the men's team. He replaced five-time National Coach of the Year Linda Vollstedt who retired in June after leading the Sun Devils to six NCAA championships in her 21-year career.
During Yokoi's five years as a Sun Devil assistant, ASU won four Pac-10 Conference titles and produced 2000 U.S. Amateur Champion Jeff Quinney and 2001 U.S. Pub Links Champion Chez Reavie. Prior to ASU, Yokoi oversaw all golf operations as head golf professional at the Country Club of the North in Dayton, Ohio, from 1994-95 and assisted the head professional from 1993-94. Yokoi played collegiate golf at UCLA from 1977-82 before beginning a professional career. At UCLA, he earned All-America and All-Pac-10 honors, playing on the Bruins' 1982 Pac-10 Championship team which included Corey Pavin and Steve Pate. After leaving UCLA, Yokoi went on to play on the Asian Tour, the Canadian and Australian PGA Tours and the PGA Hogan Tour. He has been a member of the PGA since 1994. After ending his professional career, Yokoi went back to UCLA to complete his studies and earned his degree in psychology in 1997.