Mustangs Continue Tennessee Road Trip At Mason Rudolph Championship

Friday, September 16

Nashville, Tenn.

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Mason Rudolph Championship

Mustangs Continue Tennessee Road Trip At Mason Rudolph Championship

Sep 14 | Women's Golf

SMU at the Mason Rudolph Championship
Dates	Sept. 16-18, 2016
Location	Vanderbilt Legends Club of Tennessee North Course // Franklin, Tenn.
Live Stats	BirdieFire.com
SMU Notes	Tournament Notes (.pdf)
Facebook	SMU W-Golf \| SMU Mustangs
Twitter	@SMUGolfW \| @SMUMustangs

The Week Ahead…
The SMU women's golf team continues its Tennessee road trip with the Mason Rudolph Championship hosted by Vanderbilt Sept. 16-18. The tournament will be played on the Vanderbilt Legends Club of Tennessee North Course in Franklin, Tennessee. The Mustangs are paired with Middle Tennessee and American Athletic Conference foe UCF and tee off at 8:45 a.m. CT on hole No. 10. Live results can be found at birdiefire.com.

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Representing The Mustangs…
The Mustang line-up will remain unchanged for the second tournament of the season. Seniors Lindsey McCurdy and Katie Page, sophomore Brigitte Dunne and freshmen Faith Summers and Kenzie Wright represent SMU at the Mason Rudolph Championship.

The Field…
A pair of familiar foes await SMU at the Mason Rudolph Championship, as the Mustangs faced Chattanooga and Middle Tennessee in their first tournament of the season at Tennessee. Both Chattanooga (9th) and Middle Tennessee (12th) finished behind the Mustangs on the team leaderboard. Nine of the 15 participating teams rank in the top 50 of this week's Golfweek ranking, including Alabama, which sits at No. 3, and Northwestern (No. 8) and Virginia (No. 14) are both in the top 15 as well.

Last Time Out…
Lindsey McCurdy closed out the final round of the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate with a 2-over 73 bringing her three-round total to 1-under 212. The score placed her in a three-way tie for fifth place in the 81 player field. The Mustangs held steady in the seventh spot, finishing 17-over 869.

McCurdy registered a team-high nine birdies, the sixth highest total in the tournament. The fifth place finish was the best for McCurdy since achieving the same feat at the SunTrust Gator Invitational a season ago. Overall, it is her second-highest career finish behind her win at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invite in 2015.

Kenzie Wright and Faith Summers each fired a 1-over 72 in the final round to contribute to the team score and lead the Ponies on the day. Wright registered four birdies in the third round, while Summers had three total and went 2-under on the front nine. Brigitte Dunne was the second highest finisher for the Mustangs, tying for 23rd, and Katie Page posted her low round of 70 in the second round en route to a three-round 226.

Conference Favorites…
The Mustangs return a pair of All-American Athletic Conference selections from the 2015-16 season, including Freshman of the Year Brigitte Dunne and Lindsey McCurdy.

Dunne posted her best finish of the year by taking fifth at The American Championship. She also posted a pair of top-10 finishes during the 2015-16 season finishing with 74.41 average. McCurdy posted five top-10 finishes, including an event win at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational in September. In 32 rounds, she posted 10 rounds of par or better and shot in the 60s on three occasions.

New On The Scene...
The program welcomes three Mustangs to the Hilltop this season. Freshmen Ana Paula Ramirez, Faith Summers and Kenzie Wright are the newest additions to the 2016-17 roster. Both Summers and Wright played in the Ponies' first tournament and will be in the line-up this event as well.

Mustangs In The Classroom...
Mustang returner Katie Page was honored by the Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) as an All-American Scholar for the third consecutive year after achieving a cumulative grade-point-average above the required 3.50 following the 2015-16 school year. Page played in all 12 of the Mustangs' tournaments during the 2015-16 season, earning her best finish at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational in September. Her second top 10 finish came in October at the Alamo Invitational. In 35 rounds last season, Page registered a 75.77 scoring average and posted a low round of 69 at the Clover Cup in March. The Louisville, Kentucky, native is majoring in business with a sport management minor.

All six Mustangs from the 2015-16 roster also earned All-American Athletic Conference academic honors for posting a 3.0 or better grade-point-average last year.

Birdies On Birdies...
Lindsey McCurdy finished the 2015-16 season with a team-leading 80 birdies, placing her 5th on the single season list. She also has nine to start this season. Freshman of the Year Brigitte Dunne came in at sixth with 79 a season ago.

Making It Count...
American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and all-league selection Brigitte Dunne leads returners in scores counted from 2015-16 contributing to the Mustangs' score in all but one of her 34 rounds.

Regional Wrap Up…
The Mustangs finished the 2015-16 season 13th at the NCAA Bryan Regional this past May. Brigitte Dunne, Lindsey McCurdy and Katie Page return for 2016-17 after representing the Mustangs in postseason action last year.

Next Up…
Following the Mason Rudolph Championship, the Mustangs head to Austin, Texas, to take on the field at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational Oct. 17 & 18. SMU placed seventh at the event a season ago.

Welcome To The Hilltop…
LPGA golfer Jamie Hullett has joined the women's golf staff. A member of the professional ranks starting in 1998, Hullett brings a wealth of playing experience to the Mustang staff.

In Hullett's first season with the LPGA, she tied for 15th at the LPGA Corning Classic, carding a career-low 66 in the event's second round. She went on to earn Rookie of the Year honors on the Futures Tour in 2000, posting a total of nine top-10 finishes. Hullett's career-best finish in a major came in 2005 when she tied for 13th at the U.S. Women's Open. The following year, she tied for 16th at the CN Canadian Women's Open. Most recently, Hullett played in a pair of LPGA Tour events in 2012, as well as 12 events on the Symetra Tour.

Under Sutherland's guidance at Texas A&M, Hullett earned Second-Team All-America honors in 1997 and was a 1995 Southwest Conference co-medalist. As an amateur, Hullett also won the Texace American Junior Golf Association Championship, as well as the 1996 Broadmoor Invitational and 1997 Southern Amateur.

Summer Success…
Lindsey McCurdy closed out competition at the 2016 U.S. Women's Amateur with an appearance in the Round of 64, following a successful stroke play portion of the event. McCurdy posted a two-round 2-under 140 in stroke play, including a second-round 65. The 65, which included seven birdies, tied for the lowest round of the day with the tournament's medalist after two rounds.

In other summer action, freshman Kenzie Wright picked up a team victory as part of the group from the west at the AJGA East vs. West Wyndham Cup, July 25-28. The West Team retained the cup earning a 26-24 victory after a combination of foursome, four-ball and singles matches.

Wright and partner defeated their East counterparts 2-and-1 in their mixed four-ball match on day two to help contribute to the team's victory. The freshman also finished tied for 20th at the Junior PGA Championship.

At the WTGA State Amateur Championship, freshman Faith Summers advanced to the Round of 32 before falling 2-and-1 to her opponent. Summers was tied for 18th after the opening round of stroke play, posting a 6-over 77.

Brigitte Dunne had a standout performance at the Women's Southern Amateur Championship, finishing six over and tied for ninth, while Katie Page was tenth at the Trans National Golf Association Amateur Championship. Senior Alex Celli also competed at the Canadian Women's Amateur Championship, but missed the cut following two rounds of play.

Trinity Forest: The New Home Of SMU Golf...
Scheduled to open in the fall of 2016, Trinity Forest Golf Club becomes the new home course for SMU Golf. Trinity Forest will resemble many of the great old courses of the Northeast and Great Britain, featuring a links style course on a rolling meadow with tall native grasses and dramatic bunkering and green complexes. Once complete, Trinity Forest will become the new home of the PGA TOUR's AT&T Byron Nelson Championship as well as an NCAA invitational tournament and additional high-profile professional and amateur events.

The team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw – Coore & Crenshaw, Inc. – is building both the championship golf course as well as the short course. The design of Trinity Forest will honor classic golf courses with traditional, strategic golf and great artistry as the guiding philosophy.

Located in the 6,000 acre Great Trinity Forest near the Trinity River Audubon Center about 10 minutes south of downtown Dallas, the 400 acre site will ultimately consist of an 18-hole championship golf course, a world-class practice facility, a clubhouse, a practice academy for SMU's golf teams, a teaching center for The First Tee of Greater Dallas.