The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB Women's Golf Primed For Samford Intercollegiate
3/20/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
March 20, 2005
CALERA, Ala. - Blazer senior Brooke Mangan returns to the site and event to defend her first-ever individual title as the UAB women's golf team tees off Monday morning in the third annual Samford Intercollegiate presented by Applebee's and Up The Creek. Mangan took individual medalist honors in last year's event with rounds of 71-78. The tournament will feature 18 holes each on Monday and Tuesday at the par-71, 5,850-yard Timberline Golf Course.
The last time Mangan competed in Birmingham, she took the individual title at the Buffalo Rock Southern Shootout hosted by Birmingham-Southern on March 1. Her rounds of 76 and 70 were tops in the 77-person field. In fact, in Mangan's six previous career tournaments played in Birmingham, the Blazer senior is six-for-six on top-10 finishes with two wins, one second place and one third place finish.
"We don't exactly play home courses when we play here anyway," Mangan said, shrugging off the notion that playing at home is an advantage. "We don't play Timberline very often and I only played Bent Brook twice before I won the tournament there, so I'm not sure it's something about playing at home."
In addition to Mangan's success in town, UAB has had an individual medalist in three of its last four overall tournaments as junior Janey Deimling has made trimming scores a spring habit. Deimling was named Conference USA Women's Golf Player of the Week last week after a pair of top-10 finishes in the Buffalo Rock Southern Shootout and the Waterlefe Invitational hosted by USF. She also won the Miss Louis Season Opener on Feb. 11 for her first career win. That victory was sandwiched between Mangan's titles at the John Kirk/Lady Panther Invitational and the Southern Shootout on March 1.
UAB enters the Samford Intercollegiate ranked third of the participants in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin ratings. Campbell is ranked No. 42, Middle Tennessee is rated No. 74 and UAB is next in line with a ranking of 96. The field includes in-state rivals Jacksonville State, Troy, South Alabama, Montevallo and host Samford. Other teams competing include Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee Tech, Gardner-Webb, Mercer, Nicholls State, Belmont, Western Kentucky, Austin Peay and Centenary.
"It's a challenging field full of in-state and regional rivals," UAB head coach Kim Wilcox said. "Anytime you play the teams you see a lot - the Samfords, the Troys, the Jacksonville States - you have some natural competitive drives going. It makes the tournament a lot of fun and usually produces some impressive performances."
The Blazers hope to continue their recent stretch of solid team play. UAB has finished in the top three in four of its last five tournaments.
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