The Missouri women are gearing up for their first competition after last year’s record-breaking season, which culminated in a 12th place finish at the NCAA Division I National Championship and a well-deserved contract extension for head coach Caroline Westrup Gaeta.

The Tigers will tee off the season at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate, hosted at the Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, from Sept. 7-9.

This is the first time the Tigers have been invited to the ANNIKA Intercollegiate, which is an annual tournament hosted by the ANNIKA Foundation (founded by legendary professional golfer Annika Sörenstam).

The tournament is an elite field which will feature 54 holes of stroke play over three days and include 12 leading Division I women’s golf teams. Seven of those teams appeared at last season’s NCAA National Championship, including Mizzou.

“I think this is probably one of the toughest fields that we’re playing for the whole year,” Mizzou Women’s Golf Head Coach Caroline Westrup Gaeta said.

As mentioned up top, the Missouri women are coming off an incredible season, including the highest place at a national championship in school history. Mizzou had only competed at nationals once before, in 2005, where they placed 16th.

Additionally, the Tigers tied a program-high record of four tournament wins that was set back in 1987-88, and qualified for Regionals for the first time in eight seasons.

The projected Mizzou lineup includes senior Fleur van Beek, junior Alexandra Berglund, sophomore Alabama transfer Grace Crawford, sophomore Addie Surber and freshman Page Bowman. Fifth years Melanie Walker and US Open participant Addie Dobson, who also return for another year in the black and gold, are not in the lineup for this tournament.

“We have a young team, and I think this would be a great experience for us that we can learn a lot from and take with us for the rest of the season,” Westrup Gaeta said.

If Mizzou places in the top six teams, they’ll secure an invite to next year’s ANNIKA Intercollegiate. If they don’t, their spot isn’t guaranteed.

Here’s the full list of competing teams:

Babygrande Golf will livestream the second and third rounds starting at 8:25 a.m. CDT.