Golf coverage coming to Cardinal Couple -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Goooood Friday morning readers and welcome to the Holiday weekend. 

If you are traveling, please be safe!   I will be enjoying some time at home this weekend for some R&R. 

Last weekend, I was able to make it out to Valhalla for the PGA Championship which was so incredible.  I was already considering attempting to cover the UofL golf team for Cardinal Couple but I think last weekend solidified that desire. If you’ve following me for a while now you’d know I caught the golfing itch back in 2019 and haven’t looked back!   

Paulie has been good at covering big events in the past here on Cardinals women's golf and had done interviews with head coach Whitney Youn and Lauren Hartlage. I hope to cntinue in that fine fashion of coverage. 

Daryl in the "Gilligan"hat...

My dad swears he used to encourage me to play golf in High School but I guess I was too busy on the softball field to hear any of that from him but I sure do wish I took his advice! If I could offer one piece of advice it’s this…. Listen to your parents, people!!

So lets look at the Women's golf program at a glance! 

photos from: gocards.com

Some big time names in the Program’s history

Adrienne White – Big East Player of the Year 2006 & 2007

Cindy LaCrosse - Big East Player of the Year 2009

Sara-Maude Juneau – Big East Player of the Year 2010 & 2011

Lauren Hartlage – ACC Freshman of the Year 2017

Head Coach – Whitney Young

Head coach since July 2019 – moved to head coach after being the assistant coach for two seasons.

Young enjoyed an exceptional collegiate playing career at Georgia that included three top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships. She aided the Bulldogs to 10 team tournament titles, most notably the 2007 SEC Championship. She is one of just three Georgia and seven SEC golfers to earn first team all-SEC honors four times.

The squad and season

The golf team typically will consist of 8-10 players with 5 of them playing in a tournament. The season starts at the end of the year in September and continues into May for the NCAA tournament. The Cardinals will fly south to the warmer states and even play outside of the USA (Mexico last year) in the cold winter months.

History

Lauren Hartlage holds the record for the lowest round score at 65 set on 10/20/19 at the Cardinal Cup. 
Cindy LaCrosse leads the program with the most career Top 5 finishes with 17 from 2005-2009 and more recently, Hartlage has the most career Top 10 finishes with 23 from 2016-2021 but she is tied with Margot Bechadergue

Home course 

                                  Cardinal Club Golf Course

                                 401 Champions Way, Simpsonville, KY 40067

I will probably find my way to a driving range this weekend to hit some bombs if the weather permits!!! My golf goal this year is to chip one in from the fringe! 

As Always, 

Go Cards!!! 

~Daryl

Golf at Cougar Classic -- Volleyball Moves to #3 -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Golf Completes First Two Days at Cougar Classic

Louisville women's golf completed the first two rounds of the Cougar Classic with a 20-over-par 588 for 17th place. The third and final round begins today. The event is in Charleston, SC and being hosted by the College of Charleston. 

Carmen Griffiths shot 4-over-par 75 to sit in 35th. Mairead Martin is 63rd at +5 (74-73). Gabbi Bentancourt is 67th at +6 (73-75). Molly Lyne is 79th at +8 (76-74). Carly Haines wraps up the Cards in the event in 92nd at +13 (79-76).

Being the opening event of the 2022-2023 season, there shouldn't be much concern of the lower-than-expected placement. The squad is made up of two freshmen, two sophomores, and one junior. As the season progresses, especially into the spring, Coach Whitney Young will have the younger faces ready to go.

Lauren Thibodeau and Hana Ryskova have both been in the standard rotation in the past. The duo enter their final year of eligibility. It's assumed they are sitting out this event to allow other players to get experience.

Volleyball Moves Up to #3

Following a strong weekend of sweeping a ranked Purdue team and Lipscomb, Louisville volleyball moved up a spot to #3 in the latest AVCA Poll. The Cards hold a 7-1 record.

Texas retained the top spot. Nebraska sits close behind the Longhorns in the second spot. Wisconsin leapt up a couple spot to fourth while Ohio State cracked the top five.

Other teams to note in the rankings include #7 Georgia Tech, #8 San Diego, #9 Stanford, #10 Purdue, #12 Pittsburgh, #13 Kentucky, and #21 Western Kentucky. Dang, Coach DBK, talk about putting together a loaded schedule!

Louisville travels to Kentucky on Wednesday for a 7:00 p.m. match on ESPN. There are still general admission tickets available for as cheap as $5.00 (before fees) on TicketMaster. The event will be at Memorial Coliseum.

The Cards then travel out west to visit Stanford on Saturday for a 10:00 p.m. ET match. There is no listed television for this match yet. One of the PAC channels is usually pretty good about picking events like this up, but it is a football Saturday, so all we can do is hope for the best. 

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Hartlage Ties for 51st in US Women's Open -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 HARTLAGE COMPLETES US WOMENS OPEN AT 10 OVER PAR.

As you probably know, if you've been reading Cardinal Couple this week or heard our Saturday podcast, Cardinals alumnae standout Louisville golfer Lauren Hartlage participated in the US Women's Open at Pine Needles Golf Course in North Carolina this week, starting Thursday.

72 holes later, the meet has drawn to a close and Hartlage finished with a 10 over par total of 294. That was good for a tie for 51st., and earned her $24,103. Lauren was four under par with a score of 140 after Friday's round, but shot a 78 on Saturday and a closing round of 76 on Sunday. The final score of 294 seemed to be a popular one in the field, six other golfers besides Hartlage had 294 for the 72 holes. 

The event was won by Minjee Lee with a four round total of 13 under par 271. That score was the lowest ever in the history of the event and four strokes better than second-place finisher Mina Harigae. Lee hails from Perth, Australia and has a brother on the men's PGA Tour. She's been on the pro circuit for eight years.  

Making the "cut" for women's golf's biggest event for the year is quite the feather for the "rookie on the tour" Hartlage and one can only anticipate what lies in wait next for, arguably, the best golfer to ever graduated from the University of Louisville. I, as well as many others...I would expect,  look to the future with excitement on just how good Hartlage will be eight years from now. Or even eight months from now. 

Being on the professional tour, I would assume, takes a golfer awhile to get into the routine, travel, different courses each week and different climates. Going from a college atmosphere, focus and competition into the professional ranks is, obviously, quite a change in routine. Hartlage was fortunate to have a college coach in Whitney Young, who had played on the tour and was available to help Hartlage prepare for what life might be like "in the bigs". 

It's a whole different realm than the cart golf I played when I participated in the game. A good day was losing less than half a dozen golf balls and getting the rare chance to actually putt for par. I'm sure my compadres here at Cardinal Couple could join me in telling some stories about life on the course. To do what Lauren, of any pro golfer or excellent amateur does never ceases to amaze me. 

We here at Cardinal Couple wish Lauren all the best a her journey continues. 

DANA DOES IT

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, we have a clip below of Dana Evans incredible shot from beyond half court yesterday in the Sky vs. Mystics game

LINK:  Dana Delivers

Chicago downed Washington 91-82 and is now two games out of first place in the WNBA East at 7-3. Evans played 19 minutes yesterday and had 12 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds. On the Washington side, Myisha Hines -Allen had 13 points in 22 minutes.

paulie