Story LinksAAC Championship Central
Tournament: American Athletic Conference Championship
Schedule/Dates: April 15-17
Location: Brooksville, Fla.
Course: Southern Hills Plantation Club
Follow: Live scoring via Golfstat | Twitter @USFWGolf
TAMPA, FLA., April 12, 2024 – The USF women’s golf team will compete in the American Athletic Conference Championship in Brooksville, Fla., USF is the host institution. The 33rd ranked Bulls head into the tournament coming off a season that saw them finish in the top four, with three wins, in eight of the nine events in the 2023-24 season.
The three-day 54-hole tournament begins Monday, April 15, and will be played on the par 72, 6,289-yard Southern Hills Plantation Club in Brooksville, FL.
The 12-team field features 5 teams ranked in the top 70 in the country. Along with the 33th-ranked Bulls, the field includes Charlotte, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Memphis, North Texas (46), SMU (27), Tulane, Tulsa (53), UAB, UTSA (66), and Wichita State.
Tee times will begin on April 15 between 8:00 a.m. (ET) off the first and 10th tees. The players will be re-paired for the second and third rounds based on the previous round’s scoring. The tee times for the second round on Tuesday, April 16, and Wednesday, April 17 will also start at 8:00 am (ET) on the first and 10th tees.
In the 2023-24 season, the Bulls won three times, the most since winning four during the 2011-12 season, including the Big East Conference Championship. Along the way the Bulls set program records, including low round 271 (-17), low 54-hole total 836 (-28), while matching the program record for 36-hole score (565) in the Westbrook Invitational. USF’s previous 54-hole record was 852 set last season.
In addition, at the FAU Paradise Invitational, the team won, and senior Melanie Green won the individual title, the first time since the 2020 Old Friends Invitational that the team won, and a player captured the individual title when Erika Smith was the individual winner.
Leading the charge for the Bulls will be returning senior Melanie Green, No. 19 nationally. Green has two wins on the season, at the Mountainview Collegiate and the FAU Paradise Invitational, and in her career at USF. She tied her career-best and program record round of 64 (-8) in the final round at the Westbrook Invitational and has earned AAC Women’s Golfer of the Week three times in the Spring. She has shot par or better in 26 of 29 rounds this season. Green was named the AAC Women’s Golfer of the Month for September and October.
Joining the charge for the Bulls are senior Alizee Vidal, who posted her first top five and third top 10 finish of the season at the Chattanooga Classic, graduate transfer Alyssa Montgomery, who carded her lowest round as a Bull, a 68 (-4) in the final round to help the Bulls close out the win at the Mountain View Classic, freshman Emma Falcher who posted two top 10 finishes in her first action as a Bull in the Fall, and junior Leonor Medeiros, who has three top 10 finishes this season.
About USF Women’s Golf
The 2023-24 campaign will be the Bulls’ sixth full season under head coach Erika Brennan. South Florida is among the fastest-rising programs in the country, as they climbed 75 spots in the national Golfstat rankings following Brennan’s first season in 2018-19 and have captured four tournament titles under Brennan, while setting numerous program scoring records under her leadership. Senior standout Melanie Green has been an all-conference performer in each of her first three seasons, qualified for the 2022 NCAA Regional as an individual and was named a 2023 All-American Honorable Mention. Green and the Bulls reached the NCAA Regional as a team in 2023, marking the program’s first postseason appearance in 11 years.