April 22, 2009
LUBBOCK - The Texas A&M women's golf team will compete in the Big 12 Championship Friday through Sunday at the Rawls Course.
After winning consecutive conference titles in 2006 and 2007, the Aggies were runners-up last year to Oklahoma State.
All 12 league schools will be participating. No. 4 Oklahoma State is only Big 12 team in the top 25 in the latest Golfweek rankings. The tournament will consist of 18 holes each day. Live scoring can be followed online at www.golfstat.com.
A&M will be represented by senior Lauren Johnson, junior Ashley Freeman and sophomores Stephanie Smith and Alexa Porter.
Johnson, an All-Big 12 pick as a junior, is making her fourth appearance at the Big 12 Championship. She has never placed out of the top 15 and finished 14th last year. Johnson has posted a 76.30 stroke average and was the runner-up at the Thompson Invitational in Hawaii earlier this spring.
Freeman earned All-America honors as a sophomore and tied for 19th at the conference tournament. She tied for 17th at the Big 12 Championship as a freshman in 2007. Freeman has a 76.43 stroke average and has placed in the top seven in two of her last three starts, including a tie for fifth at the Betsy Rawls Invitational in March.
An All-America selection by Golfweek last year, Zwartynski tied for fourth at the league championship as a true freshman. She leads the Aggies in scoring with a 75.43 stroke average and has posted four top-25 finishes. Zwartynski tied for third at the Hawaii tournament.
Smith tied for 33rd at the 2008 Big 12 Championships while attending Texas Tech. A transfer from Memphis, Porter tied for second at the 2008 Conference USA Championship.
The Aggies have posted three top 10 finishes this season, including two in their last three events. A&M rallied from a nine-stroke deficit in the final round to win the Thompson Invitational and tied for seventh at the Rawls Invitational.
"We are very excited to travel to Lubbock this week," said A&M Head Coach Trelle McCombs, who is in her second season. " The girls have been working on different types of shots that we will need to play the Rawls Course. We've gone over the golf course hole-by-hole. Three of our five players have played this golf course and have a good sense of what to expect. I really like our chances and I think we are fully prepared for anything."
A&M has claimed four conference titles in its history, winning the Southwest Conference in 1985 and the Big 12 in 1998, 2006 and 2007. In Big 12 play, Oklahoma State has won six conference championships, followed by A&M (three), Texas (two) and Oklahoma (one).
In 2006, Ashley Knoll became the fifth Aggie to win an individual conference crown. Patricia Gonzales (1985), Jamie Hullett (1995) and Isabelle Rosberg (1995) captured the SWC title, while Rosberg (1998) was the only other A&M player to claim the Big 12 crown.