Arizona women's golf joins loaded field of Top 20 teams at 2024 Pac-12 Championships in Pullman, Wash.

The Wildcats, who according to Arizona head coach Laura Ianello, “know how special this time of year is”, are aiming to carry on their winning history as it heads into the Pac-12 Championships in Pullman, Washington, this weekend. They enter the tournament ranked 14th nationally — fifth-best at the moment among Pac-12 teams.

“We have the tradition in our program of winning championships — and that’s the standard, and they know that’s the standard,” Ianello said Thursday, a few hours before the dedication of the UA’s new multi-million-dollar William M. “Bill” Clements Golf Center at Tucson Country Club, and ahead of the team’s departure for Southeastern Washington.

“So this time of year, it pushes them, they understand the magnitude of how great this time of year is,” Ianello added.

After the Wildcats finished third in their most recent outing, the Chevron Silverado Showdown in Napa, California, Ianello believes her team has found some momentum. If the team continues to play consistently, the Wildcats will be in good shape heading into Pullman, Ianello said, though she added that it starts with their mentality.

“The team has been performing very well,” Ianello said. “We feel like we’ll have a great chance for victory if we go up there, take care of business and focus on doing everything we can do.”

Leading the UA of late has been Milan, Italy, native Carolina Melgrati, who recently became the first Wildcat to log four consecutive top-10 individual finishes in the last five years.

“Carolina is a person that is very competitive,” Ianello said. “She doesn’t want just top 10s, she wants to win tournaments. I think she’s starting to believe in herself a little bit more with the success of the last four tournaments.

“She leads more by actions than words.”

Arizona traveled to Pullman on Friday and will begin the Pac-12 Championships at Palouse Ridge Golf Course from Sunday through Tuesday.

With it the expectation of partly cloudy skies Sunday and cloudy again on Tuesday in Pullman, Ianello and the Wildcats will have seen all different types of varying weather this season, including playing through dark clouds and the onset of heavy rain in Southern California while pulling out a 4-1 match play win over Clemson in Palos Verde, California.

The 14th-year head coach doesn’t expect Pullman’s cloudiness to dampen the UA’s preparation, noting that the weather “actually looks great for Pullman” and that they are expecting tougher conditions.

“We’ve played in rain, we’ve had a lot of craziness this year with bad weather and wind, so I know they’re ready” Ianello said.

Despite the team’s last Pac-12 Championship victory coming in the 2014-15 season — the Wildcats have won a national titled (2018) more recently than a Pac-12 crown — Arizona getting over the hump for the first time in nine seasons will come with the mentality of “knowing that they can win” and giving it their all.

Individually, fifth-year Wildcat Gile Bite Starkute is ranked 43rd nationally among individual golfers, while Melgrati is 45th and sophomore Nena Wongthanavimok 69th.

“It’s continuing that confidence,” Ianello said. “We’re gonna continue to feed off of the success that we’ve been having and just make sure our strategy is correct and just do the very best that we can.”

Opening of the UA golf facility

Thursday saw UA unveil the William M. “Bill” Clements Golf Center at Tucson Country Club, which is now the new home for both the UA men’s and women’s golf teams.

Ianello described the Wildcats’ brand new facility as “monumental,” adding that they will have a set-in-stone place to practice, as opposed to having to travel across town to find available spots.

“It’s a game-changer for our teams. It’s giving our players a permanent home. It’s going to give them a place to improve their games on a daily basis having a consistent facility.”

Ianello emphasized the difficulty of the team not having a consistent home in recent years.

“It’s going to help them build relationships within the Tucson community and also giving them a little bit more harmony when it comes to their schedules,” she said.

“For this new home, for our players, it’s everything.”