FORT MYERS, FL. – FGCU Women’s Golf Fall campaign tees on Friday at the Lady Paladin Intercollegiate of Greenville, South Carolina.
The Intercollegiate is a three-day (September 23-25), 54-hole tournament hosted by Furman University. A total of 18 programs will compete on the Furman University Golf Course, a par-72 and 6,256-yard course.
18 competition holes are planned for each competition day from Friday to Sunday.
second grader Posie Farrelly (Lutz Fla.) and Ann Claire Bridge (Collierville, Tennessee) and freshmen Louisiana Gauthier (Uruguay), Leonie Wolfers (Germany) and Grace Rigby-Walder (England) round out the starting eleven for the Green-Blues under the head coach in the first year Shannon Sykora.
Tee times for Friday and Saturday begin at 9:00 am at the #1 and #10 tees. Sunday is a shotgun start which also begins at 9:00 am
Just two Eagles are returning from a season in which FGCU won the Spring Break Shootout and tied for seventh place at the ASUN Championship. FGCU had four top five team results last year with an average team score of 299.97. The Eagles also have to replace Laura Edmonds and Haley Yerxaboth of whom have left their mark on the FGCU’s record book.
Edmonds has the lowest career average ever in the history of the program at 73.71 over 86 career rounds, and Yerxa is the second-best career average all-time at 75.40 over 57 rounds.
Returnee Farrelly competed in 10 events as a freshman a season ago and averaged 77.41 over 29 rounds of play. Farelly carded a season-low 72 at the Jupiter Women’s Invitational and had a season-best T19th at the First Coast Classic.
When Gauthier was officially signed with the Green-Blues, she was Uruguay’s No. 1 amateur. In the last two years, Gauthier has six tournament wins and 18 top 10 finishes among her 21 counted events. She narrowly missed out on a top 10 finish at last November’s Women’s Amateur Latin America Championship, where she finished 12th overall.
Bridge, an FAU transfer, competed in four team events with the Owls in 2021-22 and was named to the FAU All-Freshman Team. She finished fourth on the squad with a 77.0 point average over 11 rounds. She also had a season-best result at the Jupiter Women’s Invitational, finishing 33rd. She was also recognized on the Dean’s List and received recognition on the Conference USA Commissioner’s List of Honors.
For Wulfers and Rigby-Walder, the Lady Paladin Intercollegiate will be their first college event.
LADY PALADIN INTERCOLLEGIATE:
Greenville, SC / Aug. 23-25 September
Hosted by Furman University
Furman University Golf Course
Par 72 / 6,256 yards
TEAMS:
#61 Augusta
Daytona St College
FAU
FGCU
#43 Furman
State of Georgia
JamesMadison
memphis
Minnesota
Stetson
Tulane
UNCW
USF
Western Kentucky
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EAGLE CAMPAIGN
IT TAKES A TEAM to achieve our latest goal – a $10 million campaign to address student and athlete needs for continued academic success, life skills, mental health, nutrition, and strength and conditioning, and departmental needs in expanding and improving facilities Mentoring and leadership training for trainers and staff. The name embodies our mission and purpose of the EAGLE campaign – Eagle Athletics Generating Lifetime Excellence. Join our team and pledge your gift today to help the eagles of tomorrow!
COACH SYKORA
After a highly successful decade at the helm of Barry University, Shannon Sykora was named head coach of FGCU Women’s Golf on June 16, 2022. During his career with Barry, the Buccaneers won the 2017 NCAA Division II national title and finished third in 2014 in 2013 and 2022. Sykora guided Barry to 28 tournament wins in his decade as head coach, including four tournament wins in Division I. He has five WGCA All-America First Team Selections, nine WGCA Scholar All-Americans, one honorable mention All-American, the 2013 NCAA Division II Individual National Champion, and the only D-II player to compete in the inaugural Augusta Women’s Amateur.
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April benefiting the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics’ preferred charities. For more information, including how you can contribute, please visit www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/foodpantry and use the hashtag #FeedFGCU to raise awareness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have won an incredible 92 regular conference season and tournament titles in just 15 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, the Eagles have contested a total of 45 teams or individuals in NCAA championships in just 11 seasons of DI postseason eligibility. In 2022, the men’s golf team became the first program to earn at large at the NCAA tournament. Eight FGCU programs have earned a national top-25 ranking in their respective sports — including women’s basketball (No. 20, 2021-22), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022), and both men’s soccer (2018, 2019) and women’s soccer ( 2018) as four of the youngest. In 2016-17, the Greens and Blues finished in the division’s best sixth place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors’ Cup and made the top-100 nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had the top seven teams from ASUN and Florida to earn the NCAA’s Public Recognition Award for their rate of academic progress in their sport. FGCU also achieved a combined record 3.50 GPA in the classroom for the Fall 2020 semester and has surpassed the university’s general student population for 26 consecutive semesters. In the past five semesters (Fall 2019 – Spring 2022), another milestone was reached as all 15 programs achieved a cumulative team GPA of 3.0 or higher. The Eagles also contributed an all-time high of 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 and were recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
