Michigan
Evans Derby Experience
This Week in Michigan Women's Golf: Evans Derby Experience
3/15/2018 4:46:00 PM | Women's Golf
THIS WEEK
• Sun-Tue., March 18-20 -- Evans Derby Experience (Auburn, Ala.)
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• Scholar Stories: Kathy Lim
On the Tee: Evans Derby Experience
Fresh off its spring break training trip, the University of Michigan women's golf team travels to Auburn, Alabama, Sunday through Tuesday (March 18-20), for Auburn's Evans Derby Experience. The 12-team field, which features seven top 25 teams, will play the three-day, 54-hole event at the Auburn University Club. The course will be set up for a par 72 and 6,280 yards.
The Evans Derby Experience Field
There will be 12 teams competing in the Evans Derby Experience, including No. 34 Auburn, No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Arkansas, No. 5 Duke, No. 12 Florida, No. 28 Florida State, No. 23 Louisville, No. 76 Michigan, No. 67 Mississippi State, No. 35 Ole Miss, No. 8 South Carolina and No. 20 Wake Forest.
The Evans Derby Experience Schedule
Friday, March 16 -- Travel Day
Saturday, March 17 -- Practice Round, 9:10 a.m. (10th tee)
Sunday, March 18 -- First Round, 8:30 a.m. CT (tee times off Nos. 1 and 10)
Monday, March 19 -- Second Round, 8:30 a.m. CT (tee times off Nos. 1 and 10)
Tuesday, March 20 -- First Round, 8 a.m. CT (shotgun)
The Michigan Lineup at the Evans Derby Experience
Michigan will travel five starters and an individual. Playing for U-M will include freshman Ashley Kim, junior Elodie Van Dievoet, sophomore Hannah Ghelfi, senior Emily White, senior Kathy Lim and sophomore Alisa Snyder, who will play as an invited individual.
WOLVERINE BITES
• Senior Emily White has used her experience to keep her final campaign averaging a career-best pace of 74.80 per-round average, more than two shots better than her previous three seasons. She posted a season-best 69 (-3) in the second round of the East & West Match Play stroke-play qualifier. Since midway through her sophomore season, she has not missed an event, starting 24 straight.
• Coming off her breakout sophomore campaign, Elodie Van Dievoet leads U-M with a 74.60 per-round average. She has fired a season-low 69 (-3) twice -- at the first round of the Golfweek Conference Challenge and final round of the Ruth's Chris Invitational. She has two top-15 finishes -- East & West Match Play Challenge (T-15th) and the Golfweek Challenge (T-11th). Last season, she set the U-M record with her 73.09 scoring average.
• Freshman Ashley Kim has shown she belongs all season long, as she has started all six events this season. She has a 75.27 per-round early average and led U-M for the first time in her career at the Meadow Club Women's Intercollegiate. She posted a career-best 66 (-6) -- tied for the second-lowest round in program history -- in the second round of the Ruth's Chris Invitational. Kim's bogey-free, six-birdie, 12-par round was just a single shot away from the record of 65 held by Grace Choi and Ashley Bauer.
• Ashley Kim's career-best 66 (-6) was the same as older sister, and senior, Megan. The siblings are the only Wolverines in program history to card a 66 in an event. The elder Kim fired hers in the first round in the 2015 East & West Match Play stroke-play qualifier.
• Sophomore Hannah Ghelfi made her first career start at the fall finale (Landfall Tradition) and tied for 69th with a 153 total (77-76). After a solid showing as an individual at the Moon Golf Invitational (T-42, 229), which included a career-best 73 in the second round, she started her second event at the Meadow Club Intercollegiate and tied for 50th. She tied her career best with a 73 in the second round. With her spring efforts she is slated to start this week's Evans Derby Experience.
• This summer, Hannah Ghelfi won the 2017 Massachusetts's Women's Amateur Championship on Myopia Hunt Club after she defeated Angela Garvin, 2-up; Ghelfi also was named the Anne Marie Tobin Women's Golf Association of Massachusetts Player of the Year.
• Senior Megan Kim and freshman Ashley Kim are the fourth pair of sisters to play for the Maize and Blue. They join the Bauers (Ashley, Meghan and Shana), the Davises (Lindsay and Katelin) and the McCorkels (Tiffany and Tegan).
• During the season break, U-M coach Jan Dowling announced the signings of Sophia Trombetta (Independence, Ohio), Ashley Lau (Malaysia) and Jacqueline Young (Singapore) to National Letters of Intent during the early signing period.
• Also during the winter break, Jan Dowling was named an assistant coach for Team International, which will compete at the 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup this summer at Evian Resort Golf Club in southeastern France. In a Ryder Cup-style tournament co-founded by Arnold Palmer and the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA), the event features the top university/college golfers, matching the United States against an International team.
INSIDE THE MAIZE AND BLUE
• Michigan has made back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances and advanced to the NCAA Finals the last two seasons. U-M had one prior NCAA Finals appearance, in 2002, finishing 17th. The Wolverines tied for 18th in 2016 and followed with a tie for 16th in 2017.
• In just four seasons under coach Jan Dowling, U-M has posted two top-five finishes at the Big Ten Championships -- 2015 (5th) and 2017 (5th). Prior to Dowling's arrival, U-M had recorded just eight total top-five finishes at the conference tournament. In fact, Dowling's squad just missed a third top-five in 2016 when it fi0nished sixth.
• Elodie Van Dievoet had a remarkable 2017 postseason for the Wolverines. After winning the Big Ten individual title, her dramatic 18-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at the Columbus Regional helped send U-M to the NCAA Finals for a second straight season and gave her a top-10 individual finish (T-9th). In the finals, she recorded the highest individual finish for a Wolverine (T-4th), and paced U-M to its best finish at the championships (T-16th).
• Van Dievoet became the ninth Wolverine to earn All-Big Ten first-team honors and gave U-M back-to-back seasons of first-team selections after former Wolverine and recent graduate Grace Choi (2014-17) earned the accolade in 2016. Throughout U-M's history, 13 total players have garnered All-Big Ten honors, with nine first-team accolades.
NEXT ON THE TEE
• Fri-Sun., April 6-8 -- Bryan National Collegiate (Greensboro, N.C.)
Players Mentioned
