Women's Golf Opens Season at Schooner Fall Classic
9/22/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
Returning three players from a squad that advanced to NCAA Championship match play for the second time in three years, the Baylor women's golf team opens the season this weekend with the Schooner Fall Classic at Belmar Golf Club in Norman, Okla.
Freshman Diane Bailleux from Belgium and sophomore Cheerie Tan from Australia join a lineup that includes reigning Big 12 Player of the Year Amy Lee, junior Maria Vesga and sophomore Fiona Liddell, with senior Giovana Maymon playing as an individual.
"Diane is going to be a fixture in our lineup for a long time, and Cheerie is playing the best golf she's played since she's been here," head coach Jay Goble said. "I'm excited about all five of them. We're going to have to nock some rust off this week. I realize that a lot of these players haven't played in a tournament in a month or two. But, that's OK. That's what the fall season is for. We're going to learn from these experiences and get better throughout the fall, and next spring we'll be ready to go."
That's been the team MO in two of the last three years, starting out lowly ranked and just peaking at the right time. Three years ago, the Bears lost, 3-2, to Stanford in the national championship final.
"It's not that I don't think these tournaments matter. Obviously, they do matter," Goble said. "But, we have seven or eight months to get our games ready for postseason. That's all I'm thinking about. If we're playing great in April and May, that's the only thing that matters, in my mind."
After transferring from USC, Lee put together a phenomenal junior season, earning Big 12 Player of the Year and second-team All-America honors. She recorded four top-five and seven top-10 finishes and broke the program's single-season scoring record with a 72.17-stroke average.
"I've had my time to adjust to Baylor and had a great last year . . . probably my best year yet in collegiate golf," Lee said. "That gives me a lot of confidence going into my final year."
Goble said Lee has a "few things she needs to do to help her game go to the next level, but she's very capable."
"We're talking about one of the top players in the country, talent-wise," he said. "When you get to this point, it's just the little things that make you better. She's going to get better and she's going to play well for us. She's just a machine."
Vesga was third on the team last year with a 73.78 average and seven top-25 finishes, tying for 17th in stroke play at the NCAA Championships.
The junior from Colombia says losing to Stanford in last year's NCAA Championship match play quarterfinals "motivates me a lot."
"We finished really strong last year, and I feel like we can play even better this year," she said. "It would be amazing to feel that way again and to be able to actually win it. This season, we're just playing tournaments and getting ready to win a national championship."
Since it hasn't played yet, Baylor hasn't made it into the Golfweek rankings. But, the 15-team field is loaded, highlighted by No. 3 Alabama, 10th-ranked Oklahoma, No. 11 Florida State, No. 12 Texas Tech, No. 15 Notre Dame and No. 23 Florida. Also in the field are UCF, Clemson, Miami, Mississippi State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas State, Tulsa and Washington.
"Every tournament we play in this year has an awesome field," Goble said. "We're going to have to play well just to compete. Every team has players, and this is a golf course where you have to go low. The course is kind of short, there's lots of birdies out there, so you need to go out there firing on all cylinders."
Partnering with the Toby Keith Foundation, the fifth-year tournament benefits the OK Kids Korral in Oklahoma City, which is a cost-free, comfortable home for pediatric cancer patients and their families while they're receiving treatment. Following Saturday's opening round, which tees off at 10 a.m., coaches and players from each of the 15 teams will visit the children at the OK Kids Korral.
Live scoring for each of the three rounds is available at www.birdiefire.com.
WACO, Texas -- Baylor women's golf opens its 2017-18 season this weekend at the Schooner Fall Classic in Norman, Okla. The three-day, 54-hole tournament runs Saturday through Monday on the par-71, 6,046-yard course at Belmar Golf Club.
Baylor will compete in a 15-team field featuring tournament-host No. 10 Oklahoma, No. 3 Alabama, Central Florida, Clemson, No. 23 Florida, No. 11 Florida State, Miami, Mississippi State, No. 15 Notre Dame, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas State, Tulsa and Washington. BU is not listed in Golfweek/Sagarin rankings because the Lady Bears have not yet played this season.
Baylor's lineup features three players who competed at the 2017 NCAA Championship, where BU finished tied for fifth place. Reigning Big 12 Player of the Year Amy Lee returns for her senior season, along with junior Maria Vesga and sophomore Fiona Liddell.
Vesga is in No. 1 spot for the sixth time in her career. She's been in the Baylor lineup for 19 of 20 tournaments since joining the program in fall 2016. Vesga ranked third on the team with a 73.78 strokes average across 32 rounds last season, and she recorded seven top-25 finishes.
Liddell is in the No. 2 spot for the first time since her collegiate debut in last year's season-opener, the Dick McGuire Invitational. She's appeared in the Baylor lineup in 13 of 14 tournaments during her collegiate career and finished fourth on the team with a 75.31 stroke average across 32 rounds as a freshman last year.
Freshman Diane Baillieux makes her Baylor debut in the No. 3 spot after joining the program from Dongelberg, Belgium. Cheerie Tan, a sophomore from Melbourne, Australia, is in the No. 4 spot. She worked her way into the Baylor lineup for three of the final five tournaments as a freshman last season, posting a 75.71 stroke average over 14 rounds.
Lee is playing in the No. 5 spot for the first time in her two-year BU career. She debuted playing as an individual in the first tournament last season, then played No. 1 or No. 2 in each of the remaining 12 tournaments.
Lee became the fourth All-American in program history after posting a 72.17 stroke average across 35 rounds in 2016-17. She played 18 of 35 rounds at par or better, recorded four top-five finishes, eight top-10s and 12 top-25s. Lee won medalist honors at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown and the Lady Puerto Rico Classic, then finished in seventh place in the NCAA Championship.
Senior Giovana Maymon is playing as an individual in the Schooner Fall Classic. She was a key member of Baylor's 2015 national runner-up squad as a sophomore, and she appeared in the lineup once last season.
Head coach Jay Goble is back for his seventh season leading the program. He's guided the team to NCAA Championship match play in two of the last three seasons, making the Lady Bears one of only five programs nationally to make that claim. He's assisted by Ryan Ashburn, who is in her third season at Baylor.
Saturday's first round begins with tee times at 9:40 a.m. CT. Sunday's second round starts at 9:10 a.m., and Monday's final round begins at 8:10 a.m. Live scoring is available at www.birdiefire.com. Follow @BaylorWGolf on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for updates throughout the season.
Players Mentioned
