Centre ranked 2nd in season's first Golfstat poll

The first official Golfstat poll of the young season came out Wednesday morning, and the Centre Women's Golf team, fresh off a win at DePauw, is ranked second in Division III. The #2 ranking is the highest the Colonels have ever been ranked in the Golfstat poll, with the previous high being seventh at the end of the 2010-11 season.

"We are extremely excited to be ranked second in the nation," said head coach and director of golf Bruce Brown. "Realizing this honor, we also must stay focused and play hard, aswe will have a target on our backs."

Centre earned the #2 ranking by virtue of their wins at the Jim English Invitational and the DePauw Small College Classic, as well as the fourth place finish at the O'Brien Invitational. In addition to the two tournament wins, the Colonels also have a Division III comparative win percentage of 94.50%, an adjusted scoring average of 79.42, an average drop score of 83.95 and a schedule rating of 84.726. "This team is blessed with talent and depth," said Brown. "We can really go seven deep and still produce a really good score."

Centre has wins over five of the top ten teams in the country, getting them at either the O'Brien Invite or the DePauw Invite. Those wins are doubly strong because the Golfstat formula works in such a way that when one team beats another, the winning team also inherits the losing team's other wins. If team A beats team B, and team B has previously beaten team C and team D, then team A would get credit for beating teams C and D, even if the teams had not met. So, by beating six of the top teams in the country at the O'Brien and then beating DePauw at DePauw, the Colonels get credit for beating all the teams that those seven teams have defeated this year.

Individually, junior Whitney Miller (Lexington, Ky.) is ranked eighth in Golfstat with an average score of 77.20. Senior Emily Bachert (Bowling Green, Ky.) is ranked 14th with an average score of 77.70. Sophomore Allison Hancock (Paris, Ky.) is also ranked 41st with an average score of 80.70. The freshman class, led by top five scorers Alyssa Brown (Chattanooga, Tenn.) and Michaela Manley (Shelbyville, Ky.) is ranked ninth by Golfstat in total productivity with a relative strength rating of 327.414. Both Manley and Brown are ranked in the Golfstat top 100, with Manley having an average score of 82.45 and Brown 82.70.

Bruce Brown has been extremely impressed with his young roster thus far this year.

"We can always count on upper classman Emily Bachert, Whitney Miller, and Allison Hancock . The three freshmen consisting of Michaela Manley, Alyssa Brown, and Shelby Grant have all posted some good scores to create great assistance to our top three. Also, I am really pleased with the improvement of sophomore Catherine Parks. These are the primary elements to the success of this program."

Centre will host the Centre Women's Fall Invitational on Saturday, October 1.