Huskies Win Pac-12 Preview by 11 Strokes


No. 6 Washington polished off a dominant performance at the Nanea Golf Course on the Big Island of Hawaii, winning the Pac-12 Preview by a whopping 11 strokes. The Dawgs finished at 11-under 865 to come out on top of one of the season's best fields.

"It was a great way to end the fall," said head coach Mary Lou Mulflur. "It was a really nice win for the team to validate where we think this team can go. To play this caliber of a field and come out on top says a lot about this group."

The win was the third in four tournaments this fall for the UW and could mean a No. 1 national ranking heading to the spring season. Washington finished 11 shots clear of second-place No. 7 UCLA (even-par), while No. 3 Stanford (plus-7), No. 13 Arizona (13-over), Arizona State (plus-16) and No. 2 USC (16-over) rounded out the top half of the field.

The Huskies had four players in the top-10. SooBin Kim just missed her second win of the season, finishing a stroke back of Alison Lee of UCLA for the individual title. It was the fourth-straight top-10 finish for Kim, who needs one more win to become the all-time leader in victories at Washington.

"SooBin played extremely well," said Mulflur. "She was battling with Alison Lee, who is the No. 1 amateur in the world, right down to the last hole. Alison made a birdie on the tough par-3 17th after SooBin had caught her, so you have to tip your cap, but SooBin was really impressive nonetheless."

UW junior Charlotte Thomas placed solo third at 4-under 215. Thomas had with a bogey-free round of 2-under 71 for her third top-10 of the season.

The Dawgs have three months until their next competition, the Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes, Calif., at the beginning of February. Washington has high expectations as they must be considered contenders in both the Pac-12 and nation.

"It's a sport where you can't control what anyone else is doing," said Mulflur. "We will just worry about what we are doing and see how far that takes us."

For all the team scores, visit http://golfstatresults.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?DB_OEM_ID=30200&pg=team&tid=7294.