EAST LANSING- No. 25 Michigan State women’s golf heads to Columbus, Ohio, this weekend to participate in the Therese Hession Buckeye Invitational.
The Spartans last competed in the Clemson Invitational, finishing 11th out of the 15 teams involved. Junior Paula Balanzategui impressed for the green and white, shooting a 3-under par 213 over the three rounds played.
The only other Spartan golfer to finish at par or below was senior Brooke Biermann, who shot an even-par 216 during the invitational.
In recent history MSU has fared well in the Buckeye Invitational. The Spartans have won this tournament six times in the past, which is the most outside of the host school Ohio State.
There will be 12 other teams taking part in the field, including No. 5 Findlay, No. 8 Grand Valley State, No. 17 Ohio State, Indiana, Kent State, Rutgers, Youngstown State, Ball State, Western Michigan, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio.
The invitational will take place at the Ohio State University Golf Club on the Scarlet Course.
The course is a par 72 that plays 6,319 yards with many difficult holes that will require golfers to be on their A-game to be in with a chance to win.
Hole 4 is a 527-yard par 5 that would leave the normal golfer intimidated with fairway bunkers up the left-hand side that need a 250+ yard drive to be in contention with the sand.
There is water up along the right-hand side of the hole closer towards the green, so golfers will need to make sure to avoid slices or fades to stay away from the water. Finally, there are four more greenside bunkers to be careful of that could leave the ball in an interesting lie.
Hole 6 will leave golfers in need of a 250-yard drive to make it back over the water they had to avoid on hole 4.
The 568-yard par 5 will prove to be another challenge as this will play for the long-ball hitters in all the groups. Fairway bunkers up the right and left-hand sides of the fairway are part of the challenge of this hole.
Three greenside bunkers and trees near the green will require an impressive approach shot to have a chance to shoot par or under on this hole.
Michigan State has already selected the lineup that will be going out to Columbus, including Balanzategui, Biermann, sophomore Ana Sofia Murcia, senior Katie Lu, and junior Taylor Kehoe.
The format will be a shotgun start where golfers from the different schools start their rounds at the same time while on different holes.
MSU will tee off at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday alongside golfers from Wisconsin and OSU. Follow along for live scoring on Clippd.
