MADISON, Wis. — The Badger women golfers were selected Monday to participate in the 2003 NCAA Central Regional.
Three regional tournaments will take place May 8-10, the Central Regional at Firethorn Golf Club in Lincoln, Neb. The bid counts as Wisconsin’s third in history, the first in 1994 and the second in 2002. No teams have advanced past the Regional tournament.
The tournament consists of a total 324 players, of which 126, consisting of the top eight teams from each regional, will advance to the NCAA Championship May 20-23 in West Lafayette, Ind. at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex.
In last year’s tournament, the Badgers finished 12th, while junior Malinda Johnson finished in fifth place, one shot away from one of the two individual berths to the Championship.
In the 2002-03 season, Wisconsin notched five top-five finishes, most recently a second place finish at the 2003 Big Ten Conference Championship, the best Big Ten finish in Wisconsin’s history. The team’s 18-hole stroke average of 311.97 is on course to break the school’s all-time lowest of 312.06.
Johnson leads the team with a 76.04 score average. She finished in third at the Big Ten Championships and led the team on six occasions during the season.
Senior Katie Connelly also placed in the top ten at the Conference tournament, tying for seventh place. Her score average ranks just behind Johnson at 76.90, and she ranked first among the Badgers at three tournaments.
The 21-team Central Regional field consists of automatic bid-winning conference champions California, New Mexico, Tulsa, Kent State, Yale, and Southern University; as well as Texas, Florida, Tennessee, , Purdue, Oklahoma, Missouri, Baylor, TCU, Michigan State, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Indiana, Kansas State, Nebraska,
