Clemson Travels To Sedgefield Country Club For ACC Championship
CLEMSON, S.C. – The Clemson women’s golf team is set to compete in the ACC Women’s Golf Championship at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, NC. The tournament begins Thursday, April 15, and concludes Sunday, April 18, and will feature three rounds of stroke play on Thursday (two rounds) and Friday (one round) before match play begins on Saturday. The top four teams following stroke play will advance to the match-play semifinals on Saturday with the finals being contested on Sunday.
Clemson brings along a lineup of Ivy Shepherd, Savannah Grewal, Annabelle Pancake, Alexandra Swayne, and Callista Rice. Shepherd and Swayne are the only two within this season’s ACC Championship lineup that have previously competed in the event.
Shepherd will be the highest-ranked player in the event for the Tigers, ranking 49th and 56th in the nation by Golfstat and Golfweek, respectively. Starting in all five tournaments, she has maintained the top stroke average on the Clemson squad with a 72.73 mark, ranking 10th in the ACC entering the postseason. In addition to her stroke average, the junior native to Peachtree City, Ga. has recorded a team-leading three rounds at under-par and at par, giving her a tie for the team-best with six rounds at par-or-better. Her best round this season came in the second round of the Clover Cup where she posted a four-under-par 68, finishing her best tournament of the year with a seven-under-par 209 to finish third in the 54-hole event.
Coming off her best tournament of the season with a third-place finish at the Clemson Invitational, Savannah Grewal will get her first taste of the ACC Championship after last season’s event was called off prior due to COVID-19. Ranking among the top 125 players in the nation according to both Golfstat (112) and Golfweek (116), Grewal has been a starter in all five tournaments this year while recording the team’s second-best stroke average at 73.60. Just two weeks off her career-best finish at the home event, the sophomore from Mississauga, Ontario also posted a career-best round with a 67 in the second round of the tournament. It was also at the home tournament that Grewal became the first player in the history of the program to record a hole-in-one, using an 8-iron on the fourth hole at the Reserve at Lake Keowee.
The only freshman in the starting lineup for the Tigers this season, Annabelle Pancake will make her postseason debut out of the third position. A starter in all five of Clemson’s tournaments this season, Pancake is third on the team in stroke average with a 74.80 mark, averaging a 72.4 for her last 10 rounds. Despite being her first season, the Zionsville, Ind. native is tied for the lead with two Top 10 finishes with a sixth and ninth-place finish at the Florida State Matchup and Clover Cup, respectively. The freshman tied the Clemson record earlier this season with a 65 at the Clover Cup while also tying the Clemson overall record and the Clemson freshman record for score and score-vs.-par (-7).
Joining Shepherd as the only other Clemson player in this year’s ACC Championship lineup to have previously played in the event, Alexandra Swayne has tallied a 75.17 stroke average after starting in four of Clemson’s five tournaments so far this season. This season welcomed Swayne’s first career Top 10 finish, wrapping up the Palmetto with a 225 total in ninth. In the most recent outing, Swayne finished just one shot off her career-best for 54 holes after recording a 219 score at the Clemson Invitational. The Maineville, Ohio native has shot 75 or better in nine of her 12 rounds while having her score counted in all but two of those rounds.
As the only senior on the Clemson roster, Callista Rice will make her first appearance at the ACC Championship after starting in the last two events for the Tigers. Across those two events, she has a stroke average of 75.33 with her score being counted in four of her six rounds. Rice is a veteran of 16 tournaments and 45 rounds with two rounds in the 60s and two rounds at the under-par threshold.
Live scoring of the event can be accessed via Golfstat. For the most up-to-date information regarding the ACC Championship be sure to follow Clemson Women’s Golf on Twitter.
