MALIBU, Calif. — The #15 Pepperdine women's golf team gets the 2023-24 season underway at the Brand Law Firm Dick McGuire Invitational. This is the first of three fall tournaments for the Waves, who are coming off their 20th WCC title and an NCAA Championships quarterfinal run last season.
EVENT INFO — The tournament will be held at the par-72, 6,354-yard UNM Championship Course, located in Albuquerque, N.M. There will be two rounds on Monday (September 11) and the final 18 holes will be played on Tuesday (September 12). Live scoring will be available via Golfstat.
FIELD — In addition to #15 Pepperdine and the tournament-host New Mexico, #12 Arizona State, #22 Northwestern, #24 Ohio State, #25 Iowa State, Boise State, Cal, Denver, Kansas, Kent State, Oregon State, San Diego State, SMU, Texas State and UNLV will be competing. Individuals from #9 Texas will also be competing.
PEPPERDINE LINEUP — The Waves' lineup consists of seniors
Kaleiya Romero (San Jose, Calif.) and
Lion Higo (Gold Coast, Australia), sophomore
Jeneath Wong (Melbourne, Australia) and juniors
Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.) and
KaYee Kwok (Tianjin, China).
RANKINGS — Pepperdine is ranked #15 in Golfweek's preseason coaches poll this season. Last season, the Waves ended with a final ranking of #12 by Golfstat and #16 by Golfweek/Sagarin.
Jeneath Wong currently ranks #57 in the Women's Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) and has ranked as high as #45.
AWARDS — Senior
Lion Higo and sophomore
Jeneath Wong both received Golfweek Preseason All-American honors this week.
ROSTER — The Waves return seven of nine players, four of which saw action in the NCAA Finals last season. This fall, Pepperdine has eight players (two seniors, three juniors, two sophomores and one freshman).
2022-23 RECAP — Pepperdine had one of the best seasons on record last year, winning a program-best six tournaments en route to a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. The Waves won a league-best 20th WCC title and then advanced to its 24th-consecutive NCAA Regional, before finishing eighth in NCAA Championship stroke play. The squad finished out the season with match play in the NCAA Championship quarterfinal. In the fall, the Waves won both the Golfweek Red Sky Classic and Golf Iconic Classic, with
Lion Higo taking home the individual title at the former and second-place at the latter. Pepperdine continued on into the spring, with team victories at the Anuenue Spring Break Classic, Silicon Valley Showcase, WCC Championships and the NCAA San Antonio Regional. It was the second time in program history the squad had won at least a share of an NCAA Regional title. Higo won another individual title in the spring at the Silicon Valley Showcase, while
Kaleiya Romero took home the title at the WCC Championships.
Higo and
Jeneath Wong garnered WGCA All-American honorable mention acclaim, becoming the 18th and 19th players to earn the 31st and 32nd All-American honors in program history. Higo also tabbed WCC Player of the Yea acclaim, while earning a spot on the All-WCC first team alongside
Reese Guzman, Romero,
Lauren Gomez and Wong.
Laurie Gibbs was named Golfweek's National Coach of the Year for the second time in her illustrious three-decade career. She earned WGCA West Region Coach of the Year and WCC Coach of the Year honors last season as well.
GIBBS — Under the direction of
Laurie Gibbs, who is now in her 31st season as head coach, Pepperdine has earned a place as one of the nation's top golf programs. Gibbs has been honored 15 times as the WCC's Coach of the Year, was tabbed the West Region Coach of the Year on three occasions and was selected the National Coach of the Year by Golfweek in 2004-05 and 2022-23. Gibbs was inducted into the WGCA Coaches Hall of Fame in December 2015. The Waves have won 60 tournaments in her career.
RECORD BOOK WATCH — Lion Higo sits atop the record books having amassed an impressive 71.35 scoring average last season, in front of Grace Na who tabbed a 71.73 during the 2013-14 season. She also tied for first with 16 below-par rounds and 11 top-20 finishes in a single season, and is tied for seventh with seven top-10 finishes. Higo and
Lauren Gomez currently rank sixth and seventh in the program's career scoring average lists with a 73.62 and 73.95 scoring average respectively.
GOLF HISTORY — The Waves have qualified for 13 NCAA Championships, and have recorded nine top-10 finishes and five top-five showings, including a program-best second-place result in 2003. The Waves have won West Coast Conference championships in 20 of the 26 tournaments ever held, including a streak of 14 titles that ran from 2002 to 2015. Sixteen different players have earned All-American honors a total of 32 times. LPGA Tour players have included Katherine (Hull) Kirk, Lindsey Wright, Tamie Durdin, Nadina (Taylor) Light, Misun Cho, Carolina Llano, Danielle Kang, Taylore Karle and Grace Na. Hull was the 2003 National Player of the Year and was inducted into the WGCA Hall of Fame in 2012. Kang won back-to-back U.S. Amateur Championships in 2010 and 2011 and was a U.S. Olympian in 2021.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE — Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men's sports — one of just 20 schools to have accomplished this feat — and 10 overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment, is the only school without football and is the only university that has not been affiliated with a "major" conference. The Waves have won a total of 26 team or individual national championships in their history. Pepperdine has also earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that's given to the top non-football school, five times (most recently in back-to-back years during the 2022-23 and 2021-22). Located in scenic Malibu, California, the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation's most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks #55 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.
