Many of the 14 teams teeing it up in the Southeast
Conference Championship that got under way Wednesday will receive NCAA regional
berths no matter what happens this weekend.
Does that make the gathering at Greystone Golf & Country
Club in Birmingham, Ala. meaningless? Hardly. The SEC is one of those
conferences with its own TV network. The rivalries that make SEC football so
entertaining run deep.
Oh yeah, and the field features some of the best teams in
the country and several of the top 25 amateur players in the world. So yeah, it matters.
Adopting the format the SEC men used last spring with a
layer of match play to determine the champion, a format that resulted in some
stupendous golf for the men, the women finished their second round Thursday
with South Carolina, No. 10 in the latest Golfstat
rankings, holding an eight-shot advantage over No. 2 Alabama.
Mirroring the match-play format utilized at the NCAA Championship only makes sense since some of the SEC teams may very well find themselves earning spots in the final eight next month at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.
An individual champion will be crowned at the end of 54
holes of stroke play Friday and South Carolina’s Ainhoa Olarra, a senior from
Spain and the No. 22 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR),
holds a one-shot lead over Arkansas’ Maria Fassi, a junior from Mexico and No.
20 in the Women’s WAGR.
Olarra will try to match the feat of her old teammate
Katelyn Dambaugh, who put an exclamation point on her fantastic career with the
Gamecocks by claiming the SEC individual title a year ago.
The wind came up Thursday after a relatively benign opening
round Wednesday and Olarra handled it better than most with the low round of
the day, a 3-under-par 69 over the 6,242-yard, par-72 Greystone layout.
Combined with an opening round of 2-under 70, it left Olarra at 5-under 138.
Fassi, who has been one of the best players in Division I
women’s golf since the season began late last summer, carded a second straight
2-under 70 and trails Olarra by a shot bat 4-under 140.
Olarra led the Gamecocks to the top of the leaderboard as
they carded a second straight 3-over 291 for a 6-over 582 total.
Alabama, coming off a solid team win in the Liz Murphey
Collegiate Classic, had grabbed the team lead with a 2-under 286 Wednesday. The
Crimson Tide posted an uncharacteristic 304 Thursday, but are still holding
second, eight shots behind South Carolina at 14-over 590.
No. 3 Arkansas, which added a 5-over 293 to its
opening-round 299, is two shots behind Alabama in third at 16-over 592.
Georgia, a much better team than its No. 44 ranking would indicate, had the low
round of the day, a 2-over 290, to take over fourth place at 20-ovetr 596. No.
13 Florida, the defending SEC champion, is fifth at 23-over 599 after adding a
301 to its opening-round 298.
The top eight teams after Friday’s third round will advance
to the match-play quarterfinals Saturday morning. The match-play semifinals will
be Saturday with the championship match scheduled for Sunday. And the battle
for the last couple of those eight slots in match play Friday will be more
interesting than what’s going on at the top of the leaderboard.
No. 24 Vanderbilt is in pretty good shape in sixth at 602,
three shots behind Florida. Then it starts getting interesting. No. 20 Auburn
and No. 62 Kentucky have the last two spots in match play after two rounds, the
Tigers in seventh at 607 and the Wildcats in eighth at 610.
But No. 63 Missouri is only two shots behind Kentucky in
ninth at 612, No. 70 Mississippi State is another shot behind Missouri in 10th
at 613 and No. 43 Tennessee is certainly in with a chance in 11th at
614.
Backing up Olarra for South Carolina is Lois Kaye Go, a
sophomore from the Philippines, and Marion Veysseyre, a junior from France. Go
is tied for 10th at 3-over 147 after adding a 75 to her opening round
of even-par 72 and Veysseyre is tied for 12th at 4-over 148 after
adding a 76 to the even-par 72 she shot in the opening round.
South Carolina’s second-best round of the day, behind
Olarra’s 69, was the even-par 72 posted by Anita Uwadia, a sophomore who lists
the United Kingdom as her home, although she is native of Nigeria. Uwadia
opened with a 77 and is in the group tied for 18th at 5-over 149.
Rounding out the South Carolina lineup is Ana Pelaez, a
sophomore from Spain who is tied for 27th at 152, although her
second-round 75 was a counter for the Gamecocks.
There is also the not-small matter of determining an
individual champion Friday.
Fassi’s teammate Dylan Kim, a junior from Plano, Texas, is
alone in third place at 1-under 143, joining Olarra and Fassi as the only
players under par after two rounds. Kim, a transfer from Baylor, added a 1-over
73 to her opening round of 2-under 70.
Another shot back alone in fourth is Alabama’s Kristen
Gillman, a sophomore from Austin, Texas and No. 13 in the Women’s WAGR.
Gillman, who was named to the 2018 U.S. Curtis Cup team Tuesday, grabbed the
opening-round lead with a 3-under 69 before falling back with a 3-over 75
Thursday.
Georgia’s Jillian Hollis, a junior from Rocky River, Ohio
and No. 24 in the Women’s WAGR, leads a group of three players tied for fifth
at 1-over 145. Knight added a 75 to her opening round of 1-under 71.
Joining Hollis at that figure were Missouri’s Jess Yuen, a
sophomore from Bolingbrook, Ill. who fired a 1-under 71 after opening up with a
74, and Florida’s Marta Perez, a sophomore from Spain who also bettered par
Thursday with a 2-under 70 after opening with a 75.
Gillman’s teammate, Cheyenne Knight, a junior from Aledo,
Texas and No. 10 in the Women’s WAGR, is tied for eighth at 2-over 146. Knight
added a 75 to an opening round of 1-under 71. Joining Knight at that figure was
Kentucky’s Sarah Shipley, a sophomore from Hastings, Mich. who added a solid
1-under 71 to her opening-round 75.
And I didn’t even get to the most highly-rated Alabama
player in the Women’s WAGR. That would be Lauren Stephenson, a junior from
Lexington, S.C. who is the sixth best amateur player on the planet. Stephenson
struggled to a 4-over 76 Thursday after opening with an even-par 72 and is in the
group tied for 12th at 4-over 148.
Oh yeah, and Stephenson will be joining Gillman on the U.S.
team when the 2018 Curtis Cup Match is contested in June at Quaker Ridge Golf
Club in Scarsdale, N.Y. So yeah, there’s some pretty good players in this field.
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