Packed Field Awaits UVA at Darius Rucker Intercollegiate
Charlottesville, VA – The 34th-ranked Virginia women’s golf team follows up last month’s victory at the IJGA Collegiate Invitational by resuming play this week at the ninth-annual Darius Rucker Intercollegiate.
The three-day, 54-hole tournament is held at the Long Cove Club (par-71, 6,266 yards) in Hilton Head Island and gets underway Friday, March 6. The first two rounds will start at 8:30 a.m. from the first and 10th tees and the final round is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday, using split tees.
This year’s field includes (with Golfstat ranking): Alabama (13), Arkansas (18), Auburn (19), Baylor (20), Duke (6), Florida State (21), Furman (33), Georgia (28), LSU (12), North Carolina (36), Northwestern (40), South Carolina (4), Texas (1), UCLA (14), Vanderbilt (22) and Wake Forest (7).
Virginia’s lineup features junior Beth Lillie (Fullerton, Calif.), sophomore Riley Smyth (Cary, N.C.), sophomore Haeley Wotnosky (Wake Forest, N.C.), freshman Virginia Bossi (Como, Italy) and senior Julia Ford (Shrewsbury, Mass.).
Bossi currently leads UVA with a 72.80 stroke average while Smyth is right behind her at 72.87. Lillie was the team’s top finisher in the IJGA Collegiate Invitational, placing sixth with a career-best tournament score of 5-under 211.
The field features 11 teams that have won tournaments this season and 10 programs that played in the 2019 NCAA Championship. All 17 teams in the field are currently ranked among the top 40 teams in the nation according to Golfstat.
Florida State took top honors at last year’s event, winning by 17 strokes at 2-under 850. UVA was 10th at 888. Then senior Anna Redding had the Cavaliers best showing, finishing 16th at 5-over 218
Live scoring for the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate will be available through Golfstat.