Women's preview: No. 13 Oklahoma
Oklahoma's Chirapat Jao-Javanil watches her tee shot at No. 16 on Thursday at the 2012 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships at Vanderbilt Legends Club. She posted a 70 in Round 3.
In preparation for the upcoming college season, Golfweek is breaking down the rosters of each of its preseason top 30 teams.
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No. 13 Oklahoma
2011-12 Golfweek rank: 25
Go-to girl: Chirapat Jao-Javanil
Season outlook: Returning the NCAA individual champion makes any team’s season outlook a little brighter. That’s the case for Oklahoma, a team that likely has level-headed Chirapat Jao-Javanil for two more years.
Jao-Javanil earned her third victory of last season by a four-shot margin at the NCAA Championship. Though the season ended with the spotlight on her, Oklahoma didn’t fare too badly, either. The Sooners also won three times as a team, including the Big 12 Conference Championship. For perspective, the Big 12 had five teams finish inside Golfweek’s top 30 at the end of the season.
The good news for head coach Veronique Drouin-Luttrell is that all five members of the team that tied for sixth at NCAAs return this year. Returning with Jao-Javanil will be seniors Taylor Schmidt and Jacki Marshall and juniors Anne-Catherine Tanguay and Emily Collins. The Sooners also add junior transfer Kaitlyn Rohrback from Tennessee and freshman Amanda Johnson. Junior Jade Staggs also returns.
Jao-Javanil no longer will be able to fly under the radar, and Oklahoma can’t either.
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