MALIBU, Calif. — The Pepperdine women’s golf team gets the 2024-25 season underway at the Brand Law Firm Dick McGuire Invitational.  This is the first of four fall tournaments for the Waves, who are coming off their 21st WCC title and a finish in the NCAA Championship finals last season.
 
EVENT INFO — The tournament will be held at the par-72, 6,354-yard UNM Championship Course, located in Albuquerque, N.M.  There will be two rounds on Monday (September 9) and the final 18 holes will be played on Tuesday (September 10). Live scoring will be available via Golfstat.
 
FIELD — In addition to #17 Pepperdine and tournament host New Mexico, the field includes BYU, Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton, Chattanooga, Grand Canyon, Hawai’i, Kennesaw State, Long Beach State, Nevada, Northern Arizona, Texas State, UNLV and UTEP.
 
PEPPERDINE LINEUP — The Waves’ lineup consists of senior Lauren Gomez (Murrieta, Calif.), juniors Jeneath Wong (Melbourne, Australia) and Yingzhi Zhu (Nanjing, China), freshman Grace Anderson (Burlington, Ontario, Canada) and senior KaYee Kwok (Tianjin, China).
 
RANKINGS — Pepperdine is ranked #17 in the Golfweek national preseason poll and #24 in the Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll this week.  In the WAGR, Jeneath Wong is ranked #77 and has ranked as high as #45, while Eunseo Choi ranks #84.  Choi will join the Waves in January.
 
AWARDS — Jeneath Wong garnered recognition as a Golfweek Preseason All-American third team selection and was also named to the Annika Award watch list.
 
ROSTER — The Waves return four of seven players, four of which saw action in the NCAA Championships last season.  Senior Lauren Gomez returns to the squad after winning her second individual WCC Championship last spring, and so does two-time All-American and 2024 WCC Player of the Year, junior Jeneath Wong.  Additionally, senior KaYee Kwok and junior Yingzhi Zhu have returned.  Pepperdine adds three freshmen to the ranks, Grace Anderson (Burlington, Ontario, Canada), Eunsio Choi (Auckland, New Zealand) and Nishna Patel (Mumbai, India).  This year, Pepperdine has eight players (two seniors, two juniors, and three freshmen).
 
2023-24 RECAP — The Waves are coming off their 25th-straight NCAA Regional and the program’s 14th all-time NCAA Finals appearance in 2024.  Pepperdine also won the program’s 21st WCC Championship in the last 26 years last season.  The Waves finished ranked #21 in the WGCA Coach’s Poll, after recording four first-place tournament finishes – Dick McGuire Invitational, Golfweek Red Sky Classic, Silicon Valley Showcase and WCC Championships – throughout the 2023-24 campaign.  The Waves had two individual wins in tournaments last season, first with Jeneath Wong‘s first collegiate victory at the Silicon Valley Showcase and then with Lauren Gomez taking home the top spot at the WCC Championships for the second time in her career.
 
Wong garnered WGCA and Golfweek All-American with honorable mention status and earned WCC Player of the Year acclaim.  Wong, Gomez and now-graduated seniors Lion Higo and Kaleiya Romero earned All-WCC first team nods.  Head Coach Laurie Gibbs earned WCC Coach of the Year honors for the 16th time in her career.
 
RECORD BOOK WATCH — Jeneath Wong sits at the top of the record book in career scoring, posting a 72.58 score in 52 rounds played. Lauren Gomez trails closely behind in fourth place with a career record of 73.41 in her 96 rounds played.
 
GIBBS — Under the direction of Laurie Gibbs, who is now in her 32nd season as head coach, Pepperdine has earned a place as one of the nation’s top golf programs. Gibbs has been honored 16 times as the WCC’s Coach of the Year, was tabbed the West Region Coach of the Year on three occasions and was selected the National Coach of the Year by Golfweek in 2004-05 and 2022-23. Gibbs was inducted into the WGCA Coaches Hall of Fame in December 2015. The Waves have won 60 tournaments in her career.
 
GOLF HISTORY — The Waves have qualified for 14 NCAA Championships, and have recorded nine top-10 finishes and five top-five showings, including a program-best second-place result in 2003. The Waves have won West Coast Conference championships in 21 of the 27 tournaments ever held, including a streak of 14 titles that ran from 2002 to 2015.  Sixteen different players have earned All-American honors a total of 32 times. LPGA Tour players have included Katherine (Hull) Kirk, Lindsey Wright, Tamie Durdin, Nadina (Taylor) Light, Misun Cho, Carolina Llano, Danielle Kang, Taylore Karle and Grace Na.  Hull was the 2003 National Player of the Year and was inducted into the WGCA Hall of Fame in 2012.  Kang won back-to-back U.S. Amateur Championships in 2010 and 2011 and was a U.S. Olympian in 2021.
 
ABOUT PEPPERDINE — Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men’s sports — one of just 20 schools to have accomplished this feat — and 10 overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest undergraduate enrollment, is the only school without football and is the only university that has not been affiliated with a “major” conference. The Waves have won a total of 26 team or individual national championships in their history. Pepperdine has also earned the Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy, an award based on postseason success that’s given to the top non-football school, four times (most recently in 2022-23). Located in scenic Malibu, California, the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation’s most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks #76 overall on U.S. News and World Report’s list of America’s best colleges.