No. 2 Arkansas Starts Spring at Puerto Rico Classic

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico – No. 2 Arkansas women’s golf opens its spring slate at the Puerto Rico Classic in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, at Grand Reserve Golf Course on Feb. 2-4.

The spring-opening lineup card for the Razorbacks features seniors Cory Lopez and Kendall Todd, junior Reagan Zibilski, sophomores Maria José Marin and Abbey Schutte and freshman Clarisa Temelo.

José Marin, Todd and Temelo enter the spring in the Women’s Amateur Golf Rankings top 100 at No. 6, No. 45 and No. 85, respectively.

LAST TIME OUT
Arkansas concluded its fall slate at the Jackson T. Stephens Cup at Oklahoma Golf & CC in a thrilling match-play victory over No. 13 Oregon to pick up their third win in four fall tournaments.

The Hogs lead in all five matches on the front nine before giving up leads in three matches heading into the final few holes. After Maria José Marin, the top-ranked women’s college golfer, wrapped up her match against Suvichaya Vinijchaitham up four holes with three remaining, the two teams were tied 2-2 with just one pairing remaining.

Freshman Natalie Blonien, up against reigning WGCA Co-Freshman of the Year Kiara Romero, made her collegiate match play debut as Arkansas’ anchor.

The Altus, Oklahoma native got out to an early two-hole lead on the front nine and fell behind by two holes going into the 15th hole. On the par-3 15th hole, Blonien sunk her first birdie since No. 8 and ended a stretch of five bogeys. With the lead cut to one hole, the pair tied No. 16.

Despite a tee shot into the rough on hole 17, Blonien’s second stroke managed to fall within five feet of the hole and pressured Romero into conceding the hole after her attempt from the rough resulted in a would-be lengthy putt for birdie.

Headed into the 18th hole, the match between Blonien and Romero was tied for the first time since No. 12. Both players found the fairway to begin the par 4 and followed up with both of their second shots on the green, with Blonien’s closer at roughly 25 feet out from the pin.

Romero, first to putt, missed her long-range attempt for birdie and put Blonien in position to win the team title for Arkansas with a made birdie putt. The freshman did just that when her 25-footer slowed up and made a slight curl to the right before dropping in the hole.

The Hogs also won the Blessings Collegiate Invitational, the Dale McNamara Invitational and finished runner-up at the Carmel Cup.

THE FIELD (18 Teams)
Purdue (host), No. 2 Arkansas, No. 20 Auburn, Georgia Southern, Furman, Iowa State, Kansas State, Kent State, No. 16 LSU, No. 22 Michigan State, Minnesota, North Florida, North Texas, No. 9 Northwestern, No. 19 Ole Miss, UNCW, UTSA and No. 15 Vanderbilt.

Rankings from Scoreboard by Clippd

THE COURSE
All three rounds will be played at Grand Reserve Golf Course (par 72, 6,305 yards).

FORMAT
The three-day tournament will include one round of 18 holes on each day. The first round will tee off at 7:00 a.m. CT, followed by the second round at 6:30 a.m. CT. The final round will begin at 5:30 a.m. CT on Tuesday morning. All three rounds will tee off with a shotgun start.

LIVE STATS
Live scoring and final results will be posted on Golfstat.com.

FOLLOW
For updates and more information on Arkansas Women’s Golf, follow @RazorbackWGolf on social media.