Sept. 20, 2012

STANFORD, Calif. - The No.28 (Golf Week) Stanford women's golf team opens it's season Friday at the Mason Rudolph Women's Championship hosted at the Vanderbilt Legends Club North Course in Franklin, Tenn. The par-72 6312-yard course will play host to a 15-team field that features ten team's ranked in Golf Week's top-30, including No. 6 North Carolina, No. 8 Vanderbilt, No. 11 Georgia, No. 12 Virginia, No. 14 Arizona, No. 15 Texas A&M, No. 26 Texas, No. 29 Oregon, No. 30 Michigan State, Memphis, Tulane, Kentucky, Chattanooga, and Wake Forest.

The Cardinal is expected to field a lineup of senior Kristina Wong, junior Marissa Mar, sophomore Mariko Tumangan, and freshmen Mariah Stackhouse and Lauren Kim who will be making their Stanford debuts. Sally Watson, last season's team leader in stroke average, is competing with the Scottish national team at the Women's World Amateur Team Championship in Antaya, Turkey.

"We will be playing without Sally this week so there is an opportunity for players to step up and take a leadership role on the golf course, said Margot and Mitch Milias Director of Women's Golf Anne Walker. "I believe we will see our returning players embrace the opportunity and fill the gap that Sally is leaving."

Tumangan and Mar finished last season with the second and third best stroke averages on the team, respectively. Wong, a two-time second team All-Pac-10 performer her first two years on The Farm, looks to recapture the success of her first two seasons.

"I am excited to get the 2012-13 season started and have a chance to watch the players in competition," said Walker. "We will mostly be assessing each players strengths and weaknesses this week so that we can begin to design and create individual performance plans for the year."

The Cardinal is coming off a disappointing finish at NCAA's last season, where it finished last among 24 teams. Live scoring is available here.