FULLERTON, Calif. – For the third straight season, Cal State Fullerton golfer Martina Edberg will participate in the NCAA postseason, making her way to the Albuquerque Regional hosted by the University of New Mexico at The Championship Golf Course.Edberg's tee time for her practice round is at 7:30 a.m. MT (6:30 a.m. PT) on Sunday. On Monday, Edberg will begin the first round of play at 8:15 a.m. MT (7:15 a.m. PT).
THE COURSE: Since it was officially opened in 1967, The Championship Golf Course has been one of the finest facilities of its kind nationwide. In 1988 Golf Digest recognized it as one of the Top 25 public golf courses in the country and in 1991 Golfweek rated The Championship Course the No. 1 course to play in New Mexico. Holding strong in the rankings seven years later, in 1998 Golfweek tabbed The Championship Course as the No. 2 collegiate golf facility in the West, second only to the Stanford University Golf Course. The Championship Course has a rich history of hosting major collegiate golf tournaments including the Men's Division I NCAA Golf Championships in 1976, 1992 and 1998. It was also the site of the Division I Women's NCAA Golf Championships in 1987 and 2008 and most recently the site for the 2016 Men's NCAA West Regional. In 1979, The Championship Course and UNM hosted the inaugural Dick McGuire Intercollegiate. Held annually for the past 37 years, the Dick McGuire is a premier women's collegiate golf tournament hosting many of the top ranked teams in the country from year to year.
Like most elite layouts, The Championship Course flashes a personality all its own. The extensive 7,562 yard, par 72, layout features well-manicured bent and poa annua greens with plush blue grass and rye fairways that cut through the desert layout of rolling hills and valleys. Trouble waits just off of the fairways and greens with stray shots often landing in tall rough, loose desert sand, water or sagebrush. At 5,300 feet above sea level, The Championship Course enjoys a paradise-like climate native to Albuquerque making it the perfect oasis for golf year around.
THE FIELD: The Albuquerque Regional is one of four regional sites for the 2017 NCAA Women's Golf Postseason. There will be 18 teams participating at the Albuquerque Regional along with six individual competitors, including Edberg. The field is highlighted by Stanford, which is ranked No. 3 in the GolfWeek NCAA Women's Golf rankings. Duke (No. 7), USC (No. 10), Miami (No. 15), Oklahoma State (No. 18), North Carolina State (No. 19), California (No. 28), Pepperdine (No. 32), Pepperdine (No. 40), defending national champion Washington, SMU, Campbell, Denver, New Mexico State, 2017 Big West Conference champion Cal Poly, Sacramento State, Houston Baptist and Texas Southern round out the field.
The individuals include Edberg, Bianca Pagdanganan (Gonzaga), Jessica Yuen (Missouri), Gudrun Bjorgvinsdottir (Fresno State), Paige Lee (UC Davis) and Kristin Le (Santa Clara).
A total of 384 participants have been selected for regional competition. Of these players, 132 will advance to the championships finals. Six teams and three individuals will advance from each regional.
The national championships will be May 19-24 at Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, Illinois, hosted by Northern Illinois University. The final three days of the championship will be televised live by the Golf Channel.
LIVE STATS: Fans can follow all the action from all three days the Albuquerque Regional through GolfStat.com. Links for the live stats as well as complete results following the conclusion of each day will be available at FullertonTitans.com.
LAST YEAR IN STANFORD: Edberg had her best round of the week, posting a 1-under 70 in the third and final round of the NCAA Stanford Regional hosted by Stanford University at the Stanford Golf Course on May 7, 2016. Edberg moved up significantly on the individual leaderboard, finishing tied for 22nd with a 7-over 220 over 54 holes. She teed off the third round from the 383-yard No. 10, a par-four. She posted a 1-over on the back-nine with two bogeys and a birdie, but made a charge on the front-nine, posting birdies on No. 1, No. 3 and No. 9 with just one bogey on No. 2 to finish at 1-under for the day. Edberg missed out on being one of the top-three individual scorers advancing to the NCAA Championships by five strokes. Andrea Wong of UC Davis (-4), Jennifer Kupcho of Wake Forest (-1) and Sarah Burnham of Michigan State (+2) secured those spots with Burnham winning a two-hole playoff to advance.
EDBERG'S RECORD-BREAKING SEASON AT FULLERTON: The 2017 Big West Conference individual champion and 2017 Big West Player of the Year, Edberg led Cal State Fullerton with a 71.38 scoring average during the 2016-17 season, a new Titan single-season record. She has set the record each of the past three seasons, posting a 74.81 average as a freshman, a 74.44 as a sophomore and 73.35 last season.
This will be her third straight trip to the NCAA Regionals after she appeared in the South Bend Regional hosted by the University of Notre Dame in 2015 and in the Stanford Regional hosted by Stanford in 2016.
Along with her single-season record, Edberg claimed her sixth individual title of the season after winning her second Big West Women's Golf Championship individual medalist honor on April 25. She fired 1-under 71 in the final round of the championship for a 54-hole score of 6-under 210.
Over the course of the regular season, she posted top-three finishes in nine of the Titans' 10 tournaments. The Glumslov, Sweden, native won a conference-record five consecutive Big West Golf of the Month awards, bumping her career total to seven, placing her second on the all-time Big West career list. She is currently ranked 17th according to GolfStat rankings and 30th according to Golfweek.
Edberg's medalist finishes this season came at the WSU Cougar Cup in Pullman, Wash. (Sep. 19-20), the Rose City Collegiate in Aurora, Ore. (Sep. 26-27), the Memphis Women's Intercollegiate in Germantowm, Tenn. (Oct. 17-18), the Fresno State Classic in Fresno, Calif. (Mar. 13-14), the Hawkeye El Tigre Invitational in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (Apr. 2-4) and the Big West Women's Golf Championship in Riverside, Calif. (Apr. 23-25).
Edberg was also named Big West Women's Golf Player of the Year as a freshman in 2014, and has been named to the Big West Conference First Team for four consecutive years (2014-17).
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