MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women's golf team is heading up north this week, set for the Silicon Valley Showcase, a tournament the Waves won as a team last year. Lion Higo was also the individual champion in the inaugural tournament last season.
EVENT HISTORY — The tournament will be held at the par-71, 6,061-yard Green Hills Country Club in Millbrae, Calif. It's a two-day event (March 11-12) with 36 holes of golf on Monday and the final round of 18 on Tuesday. Fellow West Coast Conference opponent Santa Clara is the tournament host. Tee times are slated for a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. each morning. Live scoring will be available via Golfstat.
Located in Millbrae, Green Hills was designed and built by world-famous golf course architect, Dr. Alister MacKenzie, and features breathtaking views of the sun-warmed hills between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. Green Hills has served as a U.S. Open Qualifying site, has hosted the MacKenzie Cup as well as a number of other USGA and NCGA events.
FIELD — In addition to #24 Pepperdine and host Santa Clara, the 10-team field includes #3 UCLA, #25 San Jose State, Long Beach State, UC Davis, San Francisco, Washington State, UC Irvine and Wyoming.
PEPPERDINE LINEUP — The Waves' lineup consists of sophomore Jeneath Wong (Melbourne, Australia), junior Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.), seniors Lion Higo (Gold Coast, Australia) and Kaleiya Romero (San Jose, Calif.) and sophomore Yingzhi Zhu (Nanjing, China).
RANKINGS — Pepperdine is ranked #24 in the Clipp'd national rankings this week. In the WAGR, Lion Higo ranks #78 and Jeneath Wong is #68. In the Clipp'd national individual rankings, Wong is #82, having moved up 89-spots after last week's performance. Lauren Gomez is #100, Kaleiya Romero is #124 and Lion Higo ranks #137.
PEPPERDINE AT THE SHOWCASE — The Silicon Valley Showcase is in its second year of existence and the Waves made quite a splash last year in the inaugural tournament. Pepperdine finished with a 17-over 869 to tie for first out of nine teams. The other team to finish first was top-ranked Stanford. Lion Higo had won her second tournament of the season with a solid 1-over 214 in unsavory weather conditions to own the individual title outright with a 1-stroke margin.
LAST TIME OUT — Pepperdine most recently played in The Show at Spanish Trail in Las Vegas, finishing tied for fourth with a 12-over 876. Jeneath Wong led the squad with the best finish of her career after tying for second with a 4-under 212, only three shots behind first-place. Lauren Gomez, Kaleiya Romero and Lion Higo also finished in the top-27 as well.
SPRING SO FAR — The Waves have played in two tournaments, one - the Therese Hession Regional Challenge - that turned into a match play format and stroke-play formatted The Show at Spanish Trail. Kaleiya Romero highlighted the former by going undefeated at 2-0-1, besting opponents from #10 Florida and Baylor.
WCC MONTHLY HONORS — Kaleiya Romero tabbed the season's first golfer of the month accolade, having put in a strong performance at the Therese Hession Regional Challenge for the month of February.
