Golf World Monday - February 13, 2012

09gidali’s;standout;start

freshmen having immediate success in college golf isn’t that unusual. yet the debut of arizona’s manon gidali during last week’s wildcat invitational can rightly be classified as notable. playing in her first event since enrolling at school last month, the 18-year-old from france shot 67-66-71 at gc at vistoso in tucson to win the individual title by seven strokes. in the process, she set a new u of a 54-hole scoring mark with her 12-under 204 by two. the previous record holder? only one of the most decorated collegians of all time, lorena ochoa. indeed, arizona’s vaunted program has seen annika sorenstam (whose best 54-hole score was 211), marisa baena (211), Jenna daniels (207), natalie gulbis (207) and leta lindley (207) come through the desert, and it took three days for gidali to eclipse them all. interestingly, gidali barely earned the no. 5 spot in the wildcat lineup, with her best score at vistoso in qualifying just a 73. she was so nervous the morning of the first round that she got to the course at 6:30 a.m.—30 minutes before sunrise—to get in extra practice. “she hit her first drive right in the center of the fairway,” arizona women’s coach laura ianello said. “and she took this deep breath and said, ‘i feel better now.’ ” apparently so. —Ryan Herrington (@gwcampusinsider)