Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowgirl Golfers Prepare For NCAA Championships
May 17, 2004 | Cowgirl Golf
10th-ranked Oklahoma State
advances to the NCAA Championships
QUICK FACTS
Tues - Fri, May 18-21
The Lake Course
at Grand National
Opelika, Ala.
72-hole stroke play
par 72 • 6,215 yards
Oklahoma State Golfers
No., Name Class Height Handed Rds-Stks Average 1. Annie Thurman Jr. 5-4 Right 29-2174 74.97 2. Karin Sjodin So. 5-8 Right 26-1955 75.19 3. Mallorie Underwood Fr. 5-7 Right 23-1762 76.61 4. Ashley Knoll Fr. 5-9 Right 29-2222 76.62 5. Candy Herrera Fr. 5-5 Right 17-1310 77.06
Cowgirls advance to NCAA Championships
Oklahoma State's Cowgirl golf team will travel to Opelika, Ala., to compete as one of 24 teams in the NCAA Championships, May 18-21. OSU advanced to the Championships by defeating the Florida Gators by two strokes in a one-hole playoff for the final spot out of the East Regional. There will be two practice rounds, one each on Sunday and Monday, before the tournament starts at 8 a.m. on Tuesday. The Cowgirls will tee off at 9 a.m. from the No. 10 tee on May 18, and will be paired with Texas and Texas A&M of the Big 12 Conference. On Wed., May 19, OSU will start off from the No. 1 tee at 1:10 p.m. The tournament will be played on The Lake Course at Grand National, a 6,215-yard, par 72 course, and will consist of 18 holes played each day for a total of 72 holes.
Thurman wins Big 12 Individual Title
Cowgirl junior Annie Thurman won the 20th individual league title in school history by seven strokes over Texas' Janice Olivencia at the Big 12 Women's Golf Championships in College Station, Texas. Thurman carded a 69-68—137 for the lowest two-round total by a medalist in conference history. She also recorded just the fourth and fifth sub-70 rounds by a league champion in the conference's 28-year history. The Cowgirls as a team finished third behind Texas and Texas A&M, breaking a string of three-consecutive conference championships.
Cowgirls Earn Big 12 Honors
Oklahoma State had three women's golfers named to the All-Big 12 squads, it was announced prior to the Big 12 Women's Golf Championships. Karin Sjödin, a sophomore for OSU, was named first-team All-Big 12. Junior Annie Thurman was named second-team All-Big 12 prior to winning the Big 12 Individual title. Freshman Ashley Knoll was named second-team All-Big 12 and the league's Newcomer of the Year.
Cowgirls earn Academic Accolades
A pair of Oklahoma State Cowgirls were named first-team Academic All-Big 12, it was announced Tuesday by the league office. Junior Jenny Karr and sophomore Karin Sjödin both earned first-team accolades. Karr, earning her second-consecutive naming, is majoring in American studies, and will graduate in May. Sjödin is undeclared on her major at Oklahoma State, and earned the award for the first time this season.
Oklahoma State at the NCAA Championships
The Cowgirls are competing in their fourth-consecutive NCAA Championships as a team, and 13th overall. OSU's first appearance was in the first-ever NCAA Women's Golf Championships in 1982, when the Cowgirls finished third. Oklahoma State has eight top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships, and four top-five finishes, including two in the last three years. OSU has two third-place finishes, which incidentally both occurred on the Stanford Golf Course, first in 1982 and then again in 1989. The Cowgirls have finished fifth in two of the last three tournaments, first in 2001 at the Mission Inn Golf & Tennis Resort, the same course that OSU just advanced through at the NCAA East Regional. OSU then finished fifth at last year's Championships in West Lafayette, Ind., at Purdue's Kampen Golf Course. Last year, Linda Wessberg had the highest finish by a Cowgirl individual at the NCAA Championships as she finished sixth overall. The best individual finish ever came in 1987, when Robin Hood finished fifth, three strokes behind NCAA Individual Champion Caroline Keggi of New Mexico. Wessberg finished three strokes behind USC's Mikaela Parmlid and Andrea Vander Lende of Florida with a four-round total of 300.
OSU's Results at the NCAA Championships
STROKES TOP IND YEAR FINISH SCORE BACK FINISH LOCATION 1982 3rd 1233 42 7th Stanford, Calif. 1984 21st Tarpon Springs, Fla. 1985 62nd Cape Cod, Mass. 1986 10th 1218 38 15th Columbus, Ohio 1987 6th 1203 16 5th Albuquerque, N.M. 1988 12th 1205 30 12th Las Cruces, N.M. 1989 3rd 1218 10 11th Stanford, Calif. 1990 16th 1277 71 33rd Hilton Head, S.C. 1991 25th Columbus, Ohio 1992 7th 1200 29 9th Tempe, Ariz. 1993 57th Athens, Ga. 1994 10th 1247 58 20th West Linn, Ore. 1995 44th Wilmington, N.C. 1998 34th Madison, Wis. 1999 12th *938 43 12th Tulsa, Okla. 2000 10th Sun River, Ore. 2001 5th 1194 18 10th Howey in the Hills, Fla. 2002 13th 1189 25 27th Auburn, Wash. 2003 5th 1216 19 6th West Lafayette, Ind.* tournament shortened to three rounds after rain affected final round
OSU vs. the Field
Oklahoma State is 44-30-2 overall this season vs. the competition in the NCAA Championships, good for an 59.2 winning percentage. OSU has a losing record vs. Duke (0-6), Ohio State (2-4), Arizona (0-2), Wake Forest (2-3) and New Mexico (1-2). However, vs. the rest of the field, the Cowgirls are 39-13-2. Oklahoma State is .500 against UCLA (1-1), USC (1-1) and Texas A&M (1-1), and is undefeated against California (1-0), Stanford (2-0), Arizona State (2-0), Baylor (2-0) and Purdue (4-0). The only team OSU has not played this season is the Washington Huskies.
Thurman Named to U.S. Curtis Cup Team
Annie Thurman is one of eight golfers representing the United States in the 33rd Curtis Cup match. The U.S. squad will face a team from Great Britain and Ireland at Formby Golf Club in Merseyside, England, June 12-13. Played every other year, the U.S. team has won the last three matches in 1998, 2000 and 2002. The United States also leads the series, begun in 1932, by a 23-6-3 margin. Freshman Ashley Knoll is one of three alternates for the Curtis Cup squad.
Cowgirls take Advantage of Youth
This year's Cowgirl golf team is the youngest to ever compete for Oklahoma State at the NCAA Women's Golf Championships. Annie Thurman is a junior, while Karin Sjödin is a sophomore, Candy Herrera is a redshirt freshman, while both Ashley Knoll and Mallory Underwood are both true freshmen. By assigning a “1” to freshmen, a “2” to sophomores, a “3” to juniors, and a “4” to seniors, this year's total would equal eight. That's the lowest total in school history, with the 1986 squad consisted of two juniors, a sophomore and two freshman, totaling 10. The oldest Cowgirl squad, incidentally, was in 1989, when the team consisted of two seniors, two juniors and a sophomore.
Sjödin Nearing top of the Charts
Cowgirl sophomore Karin Sjödin, who has played 59 rounds for Oklahoma State in her short two-year career, will meet the minimum requirements for the Top 25 career strokes averages at OSU following the first round of the NCAA Championships. Sjödin has a 75.05 strokes-per-round average, which will rank as the second-best career average in school history. Fellow Swede Maria Bodén is the all-time career leader with a 74.55 average. Cowgirl junior Annie Thurman currently ranks third with her 75.84 strokes-per-round average.
Karr Graduates
Jenny Karr, who was a junior eligibility-wise this season, has graduated with her degree in American studies in three years. The Cowgirl finishes her career with 5,834 strokes in 75 rounds, or a 77.79 strokes-per-round average. That ranks 13th on the all-time Cowgirl career stroke averages list.
The Course
Grand National is one of eight complexes on the acclaimed Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail that span the state of Alabama. The $16 million golf facility features two 18-hole championship courses built on the 600-acre Lake Saugahatchee, with 32 of the 54 holes draped along its shores. Grand National played host to the 2000 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships. The championship Lake Course was named by Golf Digest as the fourth-best new public course in America when it opened in 1993.
