Hoosiers to begin season in Texas tournament

The women's golf team kicks off its season in the GTE "Mo"morial in Houston, Texas today. The 54-hole tournament concludes Tuesday.\nIU has never competed in the tournament, which includes 17 teams its eighth year. Three Big Ten teams -- IU, Ohio State and Northwestern -- will make the trip to Pine Forest Country Club. \nSenior Natalie Tucker leads the Big Ten individual player rankings, according to the Sagarin ratings, which were released Feb. 14. Four other Hoosiers are also ranked: redshirt freshman Danah Ford (No. 29), junior Tiffany Fisher (No. 38), redshirt freshman Cara Stuckey (No. 56) and freshman Ambry Bishop (No. 67).\nCoach Sam Carmichael, the seven-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, will take five Hoosiers to Houston, with the top four scores counting for each round. Tucker, Fisher, Stuckey, Ford and senior Inga Snyder will play. \n"Top teams in the country will be entered (in the tournament), so we have to be ready to play even though it is our first tournament of the spring," Carmichael said. \nIU has two seniors on its roster -- Tucker and Snyder. Tucker placed fifth at last year's Big Ten Championships and 28th at the NCAA Eastern Regionals. Tucker, who transferred to IU from Memphis, was the Hoosiers' top finisher at all four of IU's fall tournaments, with her best performances coming in the Northern Invitational, where she placed second, and in the Fossum Invitational, where she finished third. \nThis fall, IU finished seventh in the Northern Invitational and the Legends Invitational, while placing eighth in the Fossum Invitational and 13th at the Stanford Invitational.\n"We have great success here at Indiana, both in the Big Ten and at the national level," Carmichael said. "There are few universities that have the tradition and commitment to excellence to the sport of women's golf that Indiana University has"