CHICAGO (Feb. 17, 2024) – Following a historic fall season in which multiple individual and team records were broken, the UIC golf program starts the spring portion of its schedule competing at the ASU Spring Invitational in Prattville, Ala.
The tournament runs from Feb. 18-19 and will be held on the Senator course at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Capitol Hill in Prattville, Ala. The ASU Spring Invitational marks UIC's first-ever visit to Alabama.
INVITATIONAL INFORMATION
- The 54-hole invitational will feature 36 holes of competition Sunday and 18 holes on Monday.
- 12 teams are competing in the 2024 ASU Spring Invitational. Along with the Flames, the competing programs include host Alabama State, Bethune-Cookman, Chicago State, Delaware State, Samford, Savannah State, Southern, Texas Southern, Troy, Maryland-Eastern Shore and Western Illinois.
- The two-day event will take place at the renowned Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Capitol Hill on the Par 71 Senator course. The golf facility has been named the No. 2 public golf facility in the country by Golf World readers while the Senator course was named among the Top 10 New Courses in the nation by GOLF Magazine.
FANTASTIC FALL FOR THE FLAMES
- The UIC women's golf program is coming off a strong fall season in which it finished in the top-three in the team standings in four of the five tournaments the program competed. The Flames set a program-record for the lowest team round (283, Butler Fall Invitational) along with setting four of the ten-lowest marks in school history for a 54-hole total.
- On the individual side, the Flames are led by Dasa Urbankova (Brno, Czech Republic/Menlo College). A three-time MVC Golfer of the Week recipient in the fall, the graduate student won individual titles at the Brittany Kelly Classic and Butler Fall Invitational during UIC's fall season and finished tied for second at the Loyola Parkinson Invitational and the Chippewa Invitational. This fall she set school records for lowest round (68, Brittany Kelly Classic), lowest round verus par (-4, Brittany Kelly Classic), lowest 54-hole total (206, Butler Fall Invitational) and tied the program record for most career-wins (two).
- Seniors Megan Tang (Memphis, Tenn./St. Mary's) and Brooke Beyer (Mesa, Ariz./Desert Ridge) also had top-five finishes for the Flames during the 2023 fall season.
FLAMES TABBED FOURTH IN MVC PRESEASON POLL
- Missouri Valley Conference coaches ranked the UIC women's golf program fourth out of 12 teams in its 2024 Preseason Poll, as announced by the conference office Feb. 8.
- This is the second year in a row UIC's been picked fourth in the MVC Preseason Poll. The Flames were selected fourth in the 2023 poll as well.
- The Flames received 105 points in this year's Preseason Poll. UIC finished eight points behind third-place Missouri State, the reigning MVC champion, and one point ahead of fifth-place Belmont. Conference coaches selected Illinois State first in the preseason poll with 137 points, followed by Bradley in second with 123 points.
AN EXCITING 2024 SPRING SCHEDULE
- The Flames will compete in five events in the spring across five states, highlighted by trips to Alabama, Florida and South Carolina.
- Following this weekend's ASU Spring Invitational, the Flames will be back on the course March 11-12 at the Butler Don Benbow Spring Invitational at the East Lake Woodlands Country Club in Oldsmar, Fla. Back in October, UIC placed second out of 16 teams at the Butler Fall Invitational, shooting a team score of 869.
- The following week (March 18-19), UIC heads to Prospect, Ky., for Cleveland State's Nevel Meade Intercollegiate, held at the Nevel Meade Golf Club. This will be the second time the Flames have competed at this event, finishing seventh in 2021.
- The Flames conclude the regular season April 1-3 at the Golfweek Program Challenge at the Caledonia Golf and Fish Club in Pawleys Island, S.C. This will be UIC's third appearance at the event in the past four seasons, having placed third in 2021 and sixth last year.
- The 2024 MVC Women's Golf Championship will be played April 14-16 at the Annbriar Golf Course in Waterloo, Ill. The 2023-24 season marks UIC's second as a member of the MVC.
YEAR ONE OF THE ANGELA RAYHILL ERA AT UIC
- The 2023-24 season marks Angela Rayhill's first as UIC head coach, after being named head coach in July. She is the third head coach in program history.
- Rayhill comes to UIC from Chicago State, where she has led the Cougars' women's golf program since 2015.
- During her more than eight seasons at the helm at Chicago State, Rayhill led the Cougars to multiple top-five finishes at the PGA Works Collegiate Championships (formerly the PGA Minority Championship), including a second-place finish in 2016 and a third-place finish in in 2017.
- Prior to her arrival at CSU in February 2015, she was an assistant women's golf coach at Chicago's North Park University during the 2012-13 school year and was a former assistant golf professional at the Midlothian Country Club in Midlothian, Ill.
A NEW HOME FOR THE FLAMES
- Harborside International Golf Center, one of the preeminent public golf courses in Illinois, became the home of the UIC women's golf program at the start of the 2023-24 season.
- Harborside is home to two challenging links courses; the Port Course and the Starboard Course. The Port Court has been named as Chicago's top public course while the Starboard Course provides a similar links golf experience to its sister course and was named a Top 10 Public Course in Illinois by Golfweek in 2022.
- Harborside's practice facility was recognized by the Golf Range Association of America (GRAA) as a Top 50 Public Range in 2022.
FOLLOW THE FLAMES
- For more information on the UIC women's golf program, fans are encouraged to visit UICFlames.com, or follow the Flames on social media through X (@UIC_WGOLF and @UICFlames) and Instagram (@uic_wgolf and @uicflames).
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