Women’s golf will make its 2026 spring debut at the University of Central Florida Challenge in Orlando, Florida, starting on Sunday, Jan. 25.

The team hasn’t played a tournament in over 15 weeks, with the team’s last tournament being the Oklahoma University Intercollegiate on Oct. 6-7. The Wildcats concluded the fall slate with a 10th-place finish.

“It’s tough when you have such a large break,” Head Coach Rob Bennett said. “I think every golf coach tries to figure out, ‘how can we get our team to realize that even though the spring semester is the next semester, it’s still coming up quickly?’ We value having time off and resting, but we also emphasize working toward what’s to come.”

The Jan. 25 start date makes the UCF Challenge the earliest tournament the program has competed in since it was founded in 2023.

“It’s nice,” Ryann Honea said. “You don’t have to be antsy about waiting for the season to start. We’ve always performed well in the fall when we go straight to Purdue and to Central Michigan our first year.”

Honea, senior from San Angelo, enters the spring season as her final season in her collegiate golf career. She’s joined by Maddi Kamas, graduate student from Ardmore, Oklahoma, as the two Wildcats will finish their collegiate careers with the program this spring.

“Maddi’s been a great addition,” Honea said. “It doesn’t feel like she got here in August. It feels like she’s been here all four years. We needed another upperclassman… It’s nice to not be the only one.”

Kamas transferred to Abilene in the fall after playing four seasons at the NAIA level and winning her conference championship four times with Oklahoma City University.

“Having her has just been really special,” Bennett said. “She’s humble, she leads with confidence and without a doubt has helped our program.”

Honea also said that the early tournament should give the Wildcats an advantage because of the Abilene weather and since the team completed their own qualifying rounds earlier this week.

As the team has shown under Bennett, it is more than capable of competing at the Power Four conference level. The UFC Challenge will host a variety of teams ranging from South East Conference, Auburn University and Mississippi State University to the Big 12 Conference Baylor University and UCF.

“We don’t shy away from a strong schedule,” Bennett said. “This is year three for us, and in year one, we finished first or second eight times. The schedule was too easy. We love doing that, and we love to win. We plan on winning some events this spring as well.”

Bennett also said that he wants to continue to challenge his players and allow the program to grow by playing with higher-level schools. As he looked ahead to future schedules, he said the program could have a Top-25 schedule in the country.

The tournament will be played at Eagle Creek Golf Club in Orlando. The course, providing large fairways and small greens, gives the team confidence that if they find the middle of the green, they’ll be able to knock down birdies and score well.

“It’s a pretty wide-open golf course,” Honea said. “It’ll be good for wedges. If the putter’s hot, putts will fall, and we’ll have a ton of birdie opportunities. Hitting the middle of the green is going to be big. We’re trying to have 18 solid birdie putts.”

In preparation for smaller greens and more opportunities for birdie, Coach Bennett had the team play nine holes, but they didn’t track their score. Rather, aim to make par or better. The friendly competition resulted in Kate Pickrell, junior from Austin, and Marissa Loya, sophomore from San Antonio, walking away with the victory.

“Marissa hit all nine greens yesterday, which gave her a bonus five points,” Bennett said. “Because of that, she and Kate won. The girls all hit a ton of greens yesterday because they changed their focus from ‘I have to make a good score’ to ‘let’s hit the green, and let’s make a point.’ We’re gonna use that this week. It’s going to be really simple and basic, which makes it as easy on us as possible.”

The five Wildcats participating in the UCF Challenge are, in order in which they will tee off, Honea, Pickrell, Kamas, Jasmine Do, sophomore from Cypress, and Loya.

“What’s great about our team is that we could take any five of the seven we have and we’d be a really strong team,” Bennett said.