VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – After competing in the Boilermaker Classic and the Lady Paladin Invitational to open its fall season, the Old Dominion women's golf team is set to host the Fourth Annual Evie Odom Invitational this Friday through Sunday at Princess Anne Country Club.
The three-day tournament will feature a total of 14 teams, to include the host Monarchs, Chattanooga, Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, Furman, James Madison, Miami (Fla.), North Florida, Notre Dame, Penn State, Princeton, Richmond, Sacramento State and Western Kentucky. Each round will see the field going off from the first and 10th tees beginning at 8:30 a.m. The course at Princess Anne has a par of 70 and is 5,824 total yards.
Fans will be able to follow along with live stats through Golfstat. Additionally, Princess Anne Country Club has partnered with College Golf Network to stream Sunday's final round on the CGN YouTube channel.
“We’re off to a great start to the year. We played well at Purdue and then we played even better down at Furman. So we’ve got some momentum rolling and second to the conference championship and the NCAAs, this is the biggest week of the year for us. The Evie Odom Invitational is something that all our players really look forward to,” said ODU head coach Mallory Kane.
Competing for the Monarchs will be Lucia Gonzalez, Barbara Car, Carley Rudolf, Alina Shchepteva and Puneet Bajwa with Mariana Arronte playing as an individual. At last year’s tournament, Bajwa was the individual runner-up after carding a five-under par 205. The Mohali, India native shot par or better in all three rounds, to include a two-under 68 on the second day and a three-under 67 on the third. She ended up two strokes back of the individual medalist, Chattanooga’s Makenzie Cooper. The effort led to Bajwa being voted the Sun Belt Women’s Golfer of the Week.
“I feel my freshman year just kicked off right from that tournament,” said Bajwa. “I had a great finish and played some great golf that weekend. The memories are still very vivid because it was the best week of my freshman year playing collegiate golf. I played kind of decent at Mississippi State and was able to carry that forward into the spring and that semester was pretty good for me. So I’m trying to get back into that same form and kick off my sophomore year with that same momentum. Going forward I’m pretty pumped. I have some great memories and experiences and know the course pretty well with it being our home course, so I’m really excited.”
As a team, the Monarchs turned in a final round of 10-over 290 to finish fifth in the team standings with a 54-hole total of 866 (+26). UCF shot a 10-over 850 to secure the team title and Kent State was next with a 15-over 855.
This year marks the sixth time that ODU women's golf has hosted a collegiate tournament at the Princess Anne Country Club. Formerly called the Princess Anne Invitational, the event was rebranded as the Evie Odom Invitational after the tournament namesake made the largest one-time donation to a woman's sport in the history of ODU Athletics.
“We’ve very thankful for the support of the Odoms. The Princess Anne golf staff and their membership is just second to none and how welcoming they are of our team and the other teams as well. We’re fired up for the weekend, the weather looks awesome. Just can’t wait to get out there and coach my players and watch them do their thing,” added Kane.
The Course
Princess Anne Country Club
Par: 70
Yardage: 5,824
ODU Lineup
*Competing as an individual
Tournament Field
Chattanooga
Coastal Carolina
College of Charleston
Furman
James Madison
Miami (Fla.)
North Florida
Notre Dame
Old Dominion
Penn State
Princeton
Richmond
Sacramento State
Western Kentucky