MONROE, La. – The ULM women's golf team, which last competed in a tournament on February 9 in Kyle, Texas, will play in a pair of tournaments this week including the Sugar Bowl Classic in New Orleans (March 14-17) and the Bama Beach Bash (March 19-21).
The Warhawks begin the week at the Sugar Bowl Classic, hosted by Tulane, which is a three-day, three-round tournament at the English Turn Golf & Country Club in New Orleans. The country club features a Jack Nicklaus signature design par-72 championship golf course. The Signature Course at English Turn was originally designed in 1988 for the New Orleans PGA Tour event, which was held at the facility until 2004 and in 2006 following Hurricane Katrina.
ULM is among 13 teams taking part in the Sugar Bowl Classic, including five teams ranked inside the Golfstat.com Top-100. Those teams include No. 69 Nebraska, No. 70 Texas State, No. 75 Central Arkansas, No. 84 Wisconsin and the host No. 85 Green Wave.
The Bama Beach Bash, which begins on March 19, is being hosted by the Gulf Shores Country Club. The Golf Club's 18 championship holes were designed by the renowned father-son team of Jay and Carter Morrish. The course was built in the 1960's and was the first golf course in Gulf Shores, Alabama. In November 2005, the course closed to undergo a complete renovation. Taking place under the guidance of Jay and Carter Morrish, the renovation lengthened the par 71 course by 300 yards and added numerous water features, enhanced fairways and additional bunkers.
The 15-team field at the Bama Beach Bash features ULM along with five teams ranked inside the Golfstat.com Top-100. Those teams include No. 68 South Alabama, No. 70 Texas State, No. 75 Central Arkansas and No. 81 South Dakota State.
The five Warhawks making up the scorecard in the two tournaments are
Jahaanvie Walia,
Chantal Dueringer,
Shani White,
Eva Bjornsdottir and
Alessia Mengoni. ULM enters the week having placed inside the Top-10 of its last 11 tournaments dating back to April 6, 2019, where the Warhawks finished fourth at the Murray State Jan Weaver Invite.
Walia is responsible for the lowest scoring average (72.83) on the ULM team, recording five rounds of sub-72 scores and the second-most birdies (35). She has finished inside the Top-20 in her last four tournaments, a streak that began with a fourth-place finish at the Mary Kauth Invitational on March 10-11, 2020. In her last outing, which came at the Texas State Invitational on February 7-8, Walia tied for 16th with a 5-over-par score of 221. She carded her lowest round of her collegiate career (68) in the second round of play.
Dueringer has made quite an impact on the ULM lineup in her first year with the team. She has accounted for three Top-5 finishes, all of which came in the fall, and has the second-best scoring average (73.25) on the unit. She leads the team in birdies (42) and has four rounds of 70 or lower. After claiming third place at both the USA Intercollegiate (Sept. 5-7) and UT Arlington Invitational (Oct. 19-20), she opened the spring with a 57th-place finish at the Texas State Invitational on February 7-8.
White has played in all four tournaments during her senior season, finishing inside the Top-20 on two occasions. She is fifth on the team in scoring average (76.08) and carded her lowest round (71) in the final round of the USA Intercollegiate (Sept. 7).
Bjornsdottir's best finish in 2020-21 came at the UT Arlington Invitational, where she placed fifth after finishing even-par with a score of 216 (69-74-73). She has the third-lowest scoring average on the ULM team (75.44) and is fourth in total birdies (18) alongside White.
Mengoni is making her collegiate debut for the Warhawks this week.
