April 17, 2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Vanderbilt women’s golf team travels to the Tennessee National Golf Club in Loudon, Tenn., for the 2008 SEC Championship this Friday through Sunday. The Commodores, ranked 30th in the latest Golfweek/NGCA Rankings, will send senior Liebelei Lawrence, juniors Jacqui Concolino and Amber Lundskog, sophomore Brooke Goodwin, and freshman Megan Grehan to the Greg Norman-designed course for the weekend event.
The Tennessee National Golf Club, which opened on September 8, 2006, will play as a par-72 at 6,310 yards. The course covers 260 acres nestled between the Great Smokey Mountains and the Tennessee River. There are 13 man-made lakes on the course and water comes into play on 11 holes. The tournament is making its first stop at Tennessee National. It was last played in East Tennessee in 1996.
Vanderbilt last captured the SEC title in 2003-04 at the University Golf Course in Baton Rouge, its only league championship since the team’s first year of existence in the 1988-89 season. May Wood is the only Commodore golfer to win medalist honors when she shared the league title in 2004 as a sophomore. Last season, VU finished sixth as a team and then-sophomore Jacqui Concolino tied for fifth in being named to the All-SEC First Team.
This year’s tournament features nine teams that are ranked in the top 40 or better, a field led by Florida, who enters the tournament ranked number five in the Golfweek/NGCA Rankings. Georgia (#7), Auburn (#9), Alabama (#10), Arkansas (#12), Tennessee (#17), LSU (#21), Vanderbilt (#30), and South Carolina (#37) are the others ranked nationally.
Vanderbilt players will be playing with South Carolina and Alabama in the five earliest tee times of the day – 9:00 a.m., 9:10 a.m., 9:20 a.m., 9:30 a.m., and 9:40 a.m.