CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois Women's Golf is headed back to The Fort Golf Resort in Indianapolis, Indiana, to compete in the Big Ten Golf Championships for the second-consecutive season. The tournament will tee off at 7:30 a.m. CT on Friday, April 22, from the par-72, 6,221-yard venue. Tournament play includes three days of 18 holes, spanning from April 22-24.
The Big Ten Championships will feature 14 teams competing for the title for just the second year following the 2014 addition of Rutgers and Maryland. Each team will send six players to the tournament, counting the four lowest scores from each round towards the combined total.
Traveling for the Illini will be freshman Bing Singhsumalee; sophomores Dana Gattone, Grace Park, Chayanid Prapassarangkul and Pailin Ruttanasupagid; and junior Stephanie Miller. Singhsumalee and Ruttanasupagid will each be making their Big Ten Championships debut at this year's event.
Head coach Renee Slone's crew closed the 2015-16 regular season with three-consecutive top-five team finishes. The last time the Orange and Blue accomplished such a feat was the spring of 2003.
Last year at the Big Ten Championships, the Fighting Illini carded team rounds of 302-303-302 for a total of 907 to bring home a ninth-place finish. Leading the Illini at the 2015 event, Prapassarangkul tied for 16th place, individually. As a freshman, she carded rounds of 72-78-71 to finish five-over par at 221. Prapassarangkul was the first Illinois golfer to post two or more rounds at par or better at the Big Ten Championships in program history.
The eighth-seeded Illini will open their first 18 holes beginning with tee times at 9:18 a.m. CT and will tee off in nine-minute increments. Individual pairings are still to be determined.
Earning the number one seed at the 2016 Big Ten Championships is Northwestern, who owned the best Sagarin ranking amongst Big Ten teams at No 7. Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan State, and Michigan all earned top-five seeds. Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin will join the Illini to round out the top 10, while Penn State, Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers will take slots 11-14, respectively.
Coverage of the final round of the 2016 Big Ten Women's Golf Championships edited into a one-hour show and will air on the Big Ten Network on Sunday, May 1, at 10 a.m. CT. The show will be re-aired later that same day at 5:30 p.m. CT.
FOLLOW THE ILLINI
Stay tuned to FIGHTINGILLINI.com for all the latest information on Fighting Illini Women's Golf as the team continues play. Follow the Orange and Blue on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for even more coverage. Live scoring can be found at: http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=8168.
