By Brian Savitch
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 13, 2002
After impressive 2001 seasons, both the UA men's and women's fall golf seasons begin this weekend.
The men's team will compete in an 18-team field at the 48th - annual William H. Tucker Intercollegiate tournament at the University of New Mexico's Championship Course.
Some of the nation's best programs will play in the tournament, including Colorado, Colorado State, Oklahoma, Oregon State, Pepperdine, San Diego State, Texas A&M, Texas-El Paso and Texas Tech.
Arizona has won this event three times in the past and has finished in the top three seven times since 1978.
The men enter their season opener with high expectations from all golfers, after GolfWorld magazine ranked the squad fourth in the nation.
Senior Ricky Barnes also enters the season fresh off his 2002 U.S. Amateur victory.
As the fourth-ranked player in the nation, Barnes is expected to carry the weight of the team on his shoulders, but junior Chris Nallen, on the GolfWorld 50 College Players to Watch list, will provide a potent one-two punch for the Wildcats.
The women's team opens its season in the same place it wants to end it ÷ at the Kampen Course at Brick Boilermaker Golf Complex, the site of the 2003 NCAA Championships.
The women's NCAA Fall Preview will be a 54-hole tournament that starts on Sunday and runs through Tuesday.
Five UA golfers will compete in the tournament, with two of them making their Arizona debut. It will be the first tournament in the post-Lorena Ochoa era.
Senior golfer Laura Myerscough will be the leading lady for the Wildcats this season, coming off a year where she finished seventh at the NCAA tournament.
Freshmen Erica Blasberg and Whitney Welch come in as two highly recruited golfers, as both have been named to the American Junior Golf Association's All-America teams on multiple occasions.
