photo by: Darren Carroll/USGA

Lyla Louderbaugh watches her tee shot at the 18th hole during the semifinals of the 2025 U.S. Women's Amateur at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore. on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025.

With four newcomers this season — three freshmen and a transfer — the Kansas women’s golf team is back up to 10 players on its roster.

That will give the Jayhawks the opportunity to field two full teams, Kansas A and Kansas B, when they host the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational at Lawrence Country Club on Monday and Tuesday.

“I think it’s great for both teams, because I think both of the A and B teams want to win this tournament,” KU coach Lindsay Kuhle said. “I think that’s their goal. So just the depth this year with having 10 players, I think it pushes all of our players to be at their very best. So it’ll be a close competition, and I think it’s just great experience for both teams.”

It will be the third event of the year for the Jayhawks, and they return last year’s individual champion, Swedish junior Ebba Nordstedt: “All the people that came out and watched, and all the support we had, and it was the first time I played at home, so it was also special,” Nordstedt recalled.

This time around, KU is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Folds of Honor Collegiate when it led after two rounds but struggled in the third, followed by an eighth-place showing among a loaded field at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic.

“Just really good competition so far, and the cool thing about it, as a coach, I just love that we’ve had a different player step up multiple rounds,” Kuhle said.

Senior Lyla Louderbaugh shot back-to-back 66s at Red Sky, and she, Nordstedt, fifth-year golfer Anna Wallin, sophomore Kinslea Jones and freshman Hannah Hall have all had their moments at times as part of the top five this season.

“When you have players that are contributing 66 to 68, it really inspires the other players to do it as well,” Kuhle said.

Louderbaugh, who won an NCAA regional title as a sophomore, has grown into more of a leader this year as one of the most experienced golfers on the roster: “Coach and I have talked about it a lot, just the opportunity to be a leader and to show people how to act or being a role model,” Louderbaugh said. “And it’s different, but I’m enjoying it so far.”

“I’m most proud of her maturity this year,” Kuhle said, “and being a leader and stepping up and knowing that it’s not only the golf scores, it’s who she is as a person, and her character and her integrity, and just being a great leader makes me so proud as her coach.”

She has plenty of new Jayhawks to influence this year with the arrival of Hall, fellow freshmen Lavanya Gupta and Elizabeth Wilson, and sophomore Alabama transfer Amanda Gyllner.

“It’s always so fun to have new teammates, get some new perspective in the team,” Nordstedt said.

And more broadly, everyone has the opportunity to grow over an extended timeline now with the implementation of the NCAA’s five-year eligibility rules — Kuhle pointed to Wallin, who she said is currently playing the best golf of her career, as an example of just how important one an extra year can be.

“When you get a player for five years,” Kuhle said, “especially in our program where we really develop players and them as people, I think you get more maturity and you get growth and they have a better understanding of what we’re asking of them and how it can help them as a person but also in their golf game.

“I think you see that with Anna Wallin, you’ll see that with Lyla Louderbaugh, and it’s just super exciting for me to get them one more year where we can develop them even more.”

In the near term, the Jayhawks will get the latest opportunity to demonstrate their progress when they take to a very familiar course beginning on Monday.

“I think that the advantage of knowing almost every millimeter of the course is really good, and the confidence that we have when we go out there,” Nordstedt said. “We know where to aim, we know where to hit, we know where to miss.”

The A team will feature Louderbaugh, Nordstedt, Wallin, Jones and Hall, while the B team will include Gupta, Zoe Pinillos, Marieke Ebens, Gyllner and Wilson. KU will look to win the event for the third straight year.

The rest of the field comprises New Mexico, San Francisco, Delaware, St. Thomas, Omaha, Creighton, Middle Tennessee, Northern Iowa, UC Davis, Central Arkansas, Longwood and California.