MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women’s golf team heads to the West Coast Conference Championships this week. The Waves have won a league-best 19 titles
EVENT INFO — The tournament will be held at the par-72, 6,234-yard Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash. It’s a three-day event (April 20-22) with 18 holes of golf each day.
SCORING & TEE TIMES — Live scoring will be available on Golfstat with links found on www.PepperdineWaves.com. Tee times for the Waves begin at 8:20 a.m. on the first hole and Pepperdine will be paired with BYU and San Francisco on the first day.
FIELD — Five WCC schools sponsor women’s golf. In addition to #17 Pepperdine, BYU, Gonzaga, San Francisco and Santa Clara will compete for the league crown.
PEPPERDINE LINEUP — The Waves’ lineup consists of Lion Higo (Gold Coast, Australia), freshman Jeneath Wong (Melbourne, Australia), junior Kaleiya Romero (San Jose, Calif.), sophomore Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.) and senior Reese Gomez (Kahului, Hawai’i).
EVENT HISTORY — Pepperdine has won 19 of the 25 WCC titles ever contested, including a run of 14-straight between 2002 and 2015. The Waves’ most recent victory was last season in 2022. Prior to that, the Waves had won in 2019. No tournament was played in 2020 and in both 2018 and 2021, Pepperdine lost in a playoff. The Waves have produced the medalist at 18 of the events.
PARKING — Parking will be limited and located off-site with a shuttle service provided beginning at 6:30 a.m. and ending at 6:30 p.m. The parking lot is located at the northwest corner of Richmond Ave. and Magnolia Dr. (west of the Living Spaces store). Look for signs for “Shuttle Pick Up”. Shuttles will run every 15-20 minutes.
RANKINGS — Golfstat has the Waves ranked #17 this week, having moved up eight spots from #25 the previous week. Golfweek has Pepperdine ranked #23 this week as well.
Jeneath Wong ranks #49 on the World Amateur Golf Ranking. Lion Higo, Wong, Kaleiya Romero and Lauren Gomez currently rank #33, #41, #136 and #209 respectively on the individual Golfstat rankings. In the Golfweek individual rankings, Wong ranks #40 and Higo ranks #43.
NCAA TOURNAMENT — The NCAA will announce the fields for NCAA Regional play on Wednesday, April 26 at 1 p.m. on the Golf Channel.
SPRING HIGHLIGHTS — Pepperdine has won or finished as co-champions in four tournaments this season. The last time the Waves won four tournaments in a single-season was the 2013-14 campaign and the last time Pepperdine won five in a single-season (the most in any season) was 2002-03. The squad won two tournaments in the fall, Golfweek Red Sky Classic and Golf Iconic Classic. This spring, Pepperdine has finished top-five in five of the six tournaments played, taking home the Anuenue Spring Break Classic title and finishing as co-champion of the Silicon Valley Showcase alongside top-ranked Stanford, snapping the Cardinal’s winning streak.
Lion Higo has had an impressive junior season, winning two tournaments, including the most recent Silicon Valley Showcase. She had finished in the top-10 in five of the nine events played this season, and in the top-20 in all nine. Jeneath Wong has had a breakout freshman season as well and has finished in the top-20 in all five events played, and top-10 in four, since joining the Waves in January.
In the final tournament of the regular season, the Waves had five players finish in the top-10, led by medalist Higo. Kaleiya Romero finished in fourth, Wong sixth, Lauren Gomez 10th and Reese Guzman, who competed as an individual, finished ninth. Romero had finished in the top-10 in four tournaments this season, while Gomez has achieved the feat three times and Guzman has twice.
WCC MONTHLY ACCLAIM — Lion Higo earned the West Coast Conference Golfer of the Month nod twice this season – in February and March. In March, Higo averaged 71.33 strokes per round and shot below par in five of her six rounds played. She finished top-11 in both tournaments, including fifth in the final tournament. In February, she had earned her first-ever Golfer of the Month recognition after averaging 71.50 strokes per round. Three of her six rounds were below par and she finished in the top-20 in both tournaments and the top-five at one.
RECORD BOOK WATCH — The Waves have been putting a dent on the record book this season. At the Anuenue Spring Break Classic, Pepperdine had the second-best 36-hole score in Pepperdine women’s golf history with a 15-under, tied the third-best 54-hole score for the second time this season with an 18-under, and posted the fourth-best single round with an 11-under in the second round. In the Fall, the Waves had also tied for third for the 54-hole score, tied for 6th with a 9-under second round and put in the third-best 36-hole score with 12-under – all at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic.
Individually, Lion Higo tied for fourth with a 10-under 54-hole score at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic, while Reese Guzman tied for fifth with a 7-under 18-hole score in the second round at the Anuenue Spring Break Classic.
Higo also currently ranks 7th in the program’s career scoring average lists with a 73.91 and is tied for second with 14 below-par rounds in a single season. Lauren Gomez ranks 6th in the record books for her 73.73 scoring average as well.
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