Women’s Golf Set For Spring Opener At Amelia Island Collegiate

Amelia Island Collegiate Live Scoring

Women's Golf 2/17/2018 12:00:00 PM

PEORIA, Ill. -- Bradley Women's Golf will play its earliest spring opener since 2013-14, taking part in the Amelia Island Collegiate Monday and Tuesday at the par-72 Amelia National Golf Club to kick off the 2018 Spring Season.

The Braves will open up their spring season in the state of Florida for the fifth consecutive year and will start the spring slate at the Amelia Island Collegiate for the fourth consecutive year.

The 54-hole season-opening event gets under way Monday at 7 a.m. (CST) with a shotgun start and concludes Tuesday with a single round, which will feature a 7:30 a.m. (CST) shotgun start. The 18-team field includes three teams currently ranked in the top 100 according to the latest Golfweek.com rankings in #43 Kennesaw State, #55 Campbell and tournament host (#88) Jacksonville. Fourteen of the 18 teams come from the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina or South Carolina, including defending NJCAA National Champion Daytona State.

Bradley has had success at Amelia Island, turning in a then school record 54-hole team score of 896, which still ranks fourth in school history, at the 2016 event. In fact, two of the nine lowest team round scores in program history have been carded at Amelia National.

The Braves are coming off a fall season in which they fired two of the three lowest 54-hole team scores in school history, including a school record 876 at the Cardinal Classic in mid-September. The Cardinal Classic featured the lowest team round in Bradley history (284) and two of the five lowest rounds. Overall, BU turned in four of the 23 lowest team rounds in school history last fall.

Sophomore Taylor Ledwein paced Bradley at last year's Amelia Island Collegiate, tying for 21st at 224 (74-76-74). Ledwein enters the spring with a streak of 22 consecutive sub-80 rounds, which ranks as the fourth longest in Bradley history behind streaks of 24 consecutive rounds in the 70's or better by Danielle Lemek and Kelly Amundrud in addition to Lemek's school record streak of 32.

Junior Frankie Saban had Bradley's low round of last year's Amelia Island Collegiate, wrapping up the 2017 event with a one-over 73 and tied for 35th last year at 227 (77-77-73). Saban posted the second-lowest stroke average on the team this fall at 75.93 and owned a 75.50 average over the final four tournaments.

Senior Ally Scaccia has played in the Amelia Island Collegiate each of her three seasons on The Hilltop and has posted a 77.88 career stroke average in the event. She currently ranks fifth in school history with 109 career rounds played and needs just two rounds to pass Amundrud and former teammate Jenna Roadley for third most rounds played in school history. Scaccia owned a team-best 74.80 stroke average during the fall, which ranks second in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Florida native Chloe Horton will play in her home state for the third time in her Bradley career. Horton's career average in her home state (78.00) is nearly a full stroke better than in her other tournament performances during her time on The Hilltop.

Junior Brooke Thompson and senior Grace Henderson round out the Bradley lineup. Thompson is tied for second on the team with 13 sub-80 rounds this season and owns a 76.67 stroke average in 2017-18. Henderson has played in the Amelia Island Collegiate each of the three previous seasons. She is appearing in a tournament for the first time since the fall opener at the Redbird Invitational in Normal, Ill.

The Amelia Island Collegiate opens a busy week for the Braves, which will also include the Rio Verde Invitational in Rio Verde, Ariz., Feb. 23-25.

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