Feb. 17, 2012

The Golden Gopher women’s golf team will travel to Parrish, Fla., for the Central District Invitational. The tournament takes place Feb. 20 & 21, with 36 holes played Monday and 18 played Tuesday. Live results will be available at golfstat.com.

This will be the second tournament of the spring for Minnesota. The Gophers finished last in their first tournament, but head coach Michele Redman still saw some bright spots, including a round of 69 by Banchalee Theinthong.

“It was fun because I did see some progress, considering we hadn’t hit anything outside since November,” she said. “They’re just going to keep getting better.”

Redman is changing the Gopher lineup from last week. Theinthong, Jackie Shepherd, and Carmen Laguna will play again, but Taylor Quinn and Anna Laorr will see their first action of the spring.

The course: River Wilderness Country Club is a par-72 course playing at 6,099 yards.

The field: Joining the Gophers and host Michigan State in the 15-team field are Coastal Carolina, Indiana, Iowa State, Kent State, LSU, Michigan, North Carolina, Northwestern, Ohio State, Oklahoma, TCU, UCF, and Vanderbilt. Iowa State won last year’s tournament.

“This is a really, really, really good field,” Redman said.

Notes: Theinthong’s second-round 69 at the UCF Challenge was her career low by two strokes…Shepherd, Theinthong, and Laguna have played in all of the Gophers’ tournaments in 2011-12…Minnesota’s next tournament will be the Clover Cup Mar. 16-18.