Rosales to Play in LPGA Event This Weekend
June 21, 1999 | Women's Golf
February 9, 1999
LOS ANGELES - Defending NCAA champion Jennifer Rosales, a sophomore on the USC women's golf team, will be playing in her first LPGA event at this week's Valley of the Stars Championship on Feb. 12-14, at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, Calif.
Rosales, who was granted a sponsor's exemption to play in the Valley of the Stars Championship (formerly the Los Angeles Women's Championship), joins a field which includes two-time U.S. Open champion Annika Sorenstam, Korean sensation Se Ri Pak, Hall of Famers Nancy Lopez and Pat Bradley, and defending champion Dale Eggeling.
"We are delighted to have Jennifer Rosales in the field," tournament director Rick Groesch said. "She is a very talented young player who has accomplished a lot in a short period of time. She has an extremely bright future in golf."
Rosales, one of the premier amateur golfers in the world, enrolled at USC prior to the 1998 spring semester. She made Women of Troy history in only her sixth collegiate event, winning the individual crown at the 1998 NCAA Division I Womens Golf Championships. Rosales shot rounds of 68, 66, 73 and 72 on her way to a 9-under-par total of 279 at the University Ridge Golf Course in Madison, Wis., smashing the NCAA Championship four-round record of 284 set by Penny Hammel of Miami in 1983. Rosales' 6-under-par 66 in the second round set a new all-time Women of Troy record.
This fall, Rosales picked up right where she left off last season, finishing second, seventh, eighth and first in USC's four fall tournaments. She also won all three of her individual matches at the Rolex National Intercollegiate Match Play Team Championships (USC finished as the runner-up to No. 1-ranked Duke), including one in the finals over Duke's Jenny Chuasiriporn (3&1), who was the runner-up at both the 1998 U.S. Women's Open and the 1998 U.S. Women's Amateur.
Rosales won the individual championship at the Golf World Invitational in Hilton Head, S.C., leading the Women of Troy to a second-place finish. Rosales, a native of the Philippines, led the Women of Troy at all four fall tournaments and maintained a stroke average of 72.8.
