TRINITY, Texas – East Carolina senior golfer Julie Boysen Hillestad has been selected to compete in the 2021 Spirit International Golf Championship.

She will compete for Team Norway at the event, which will be held Nov. 4-6 at the Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas. Hillestad is the third player in program history to compete in the event following Nicoline Skaug and Forbrigd who also represented Team Norway in the 2014 Championships in Japan and 2019 event in Texas.

Hillestad posted a 73.56 scoring average in three events during the fall. The Oslo, Norway, native recorded two top-10 finishes – which included a third-place result at the Golfweek Women’s Collegiate in Pawley’s Island, S.C. in September.

In the squad’s final event of the fall, Hillestad tied for 10th with a three-round total of 216 at the Palmetto Intercollegiate in Kiawah Island, S.C. She opened the tournament with a season-low round of 5-under 67 before firing a 74 and 75 in the next two rounds. She owns five top-10 finishes in nine events played in the last calendar year.

The Spirit features 80 competitors from 20 countries. It is a 54-hole competition with five concurrent competition categories: international team, men’s team and women’s team, and men’s and women’s individual stroke play competitions. Gold, Silver and Bronze commemorative medals are awarded to the top three in each competition.

Previous Spirit International competitors who now are professionals on the LPGA and PGA TOUR include Lorena Ochoa, Brooke Henderson, Scottie Scheffler, Bernd Wiesberger, Jordan Spieth, Francesco Molinari, Lexi Thompson, Brandt Snedeker, Paula Creamer, Jason Day, Bronte Law, Martin Kaymer, Maria Fassi, Austin Ernst, Ally Ewing, Jessica Korda, Will Zalatoris and Viktor Hovland, to name a few. Spirit alumni have gone on to win more than 650 professional titles, 25 major championships and 56 Olympic appearances, including 16 PGA Tour winners, 27 European Tour winners, 24 LPGA winners and 23 Ladies European Tour winners.

The tournament is held at Whispering Pines Golf Club, located 80 miles north of Houston. The course is the No. 1 ranked course in Texas and among the top 100 courses in the nation.