No. 9 Arkansas travels to Puerto Rico this weekend

FAYETTEVILLE — The ninth-ranked University of Arkansas women’s golf team returns to the links this week traveling to Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, for a 16-team event hosted by Purdue University, Friday-Sunday. Arkansas is coming off a ninth-place finish at the Northrup Grumman Regional Challenge to open the spring and the team is ready to return to the links. "We’re anxious to get back into competition," said head coach Kelley Hester. "We haven’t been able to work on the things we’d like to because of the weather. It’s great that winter finally came but I wish it would have come a bit sooner." Arkansas is enjoying the program’s highest ever rankings this year, including being second in the country for a couple of weeks in the fall. The Lady Razorbacks head into this event as the second-highest ranked team in a field of big name programs. Purdue headlines the field and is hosting this event at the Coco Beach Golf Course for the first time. The Boilermakers are third in the latest Golfweek poll and fourth in the Golfstat rankings. Arkansas is ninth in both polls and Texas A&M checks in 18th and 17th, respectively. Also scheduled to compete is East Tennessee State (102/111), Florida (22/26), Indiana (92/90), Iowa State (105/103), Kent State (21/21), Minnesota (106/107), North Carolina (37/40), Oklahoma (83/81), Oklahoma State (23/31), South Carolina (39/29), TCU (48/42), Tulsa (47/43) and Wisconsin (90/97). "This is a field we can have some success against but we’re going to have to play well," said Hester. "We typically play hard courses well but we didn’t do that last week. We just were not patient. We really want to make that adjustment and get into a rhythm this week." The par 72, 6,000-yard course will also challenge the field, all of whom are playing it for the first time. "The course will be like a traditional Florida golf course," said Hester. "It should be a fun course to play." Arkansas made a small change to the lineup from the first event of the fall. Traveling this week are seniors Amanda McCurdy, Courtney Mahon and Lindsey Hinshaw along with sophomore Stacy Lewis and freshman Lucy Nunn. Nunn earned her first trip of the spring with solid qualifying rounds last week. Arkansas has three regular season events remaining. The Lady Razorbacks travel to the Texas A&M "Mo" Morial Classic March 10-12, the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic March 24-26, and the Southeastern Conference Championship April 14-16. The Lady Razorbacks are also looking for appearances at the NCAA Regional Championship May 5-7, and the National Championship May 17-20. For more information about Arkansas golf, log on to LADYBACKS.COM.