Brooks, Florida out in front in rain-delayed Cougar Classic

   It was a decent start to her junior season for North Carolina’s Brynn Walker, a two-time PIAA Class AAA champion at Radnor, although the Tar Heels struggled in Sunday’s not-quite-complete opening round of the Cougar Classic at the Yeamans Hall Club in Hanahan, S.C.

   The fact that most of the round was completed means the weather was a little bit better in South Carolina Sunday than it was here in suburban Philadelphia, where the PGA Tour pros could never even get out on the golf course at Aronimink Golf Club for the third round of the BMW Championship. The good news is the Cougar Classic should be completed before Hurricane Florence decides if she plans to take aim at the Carolina coast.

   Florida, No. 14 in the latest Golfstat rankings, did get its round in and, led by individual leader Sierra Brooks, a junior from Orlando, Fla., the Gators grabbed the team lead with a 10-under 278.

No. 31 Vanderbilt, a Southeast Conference rival of Florida’s, is still on the golf course at 8-under in second place.

   No. 3 Arkansas, the reigning SEC champion, completed its round and the Razorbacks are alone in third at 6-under 282.

   The seasons of Denise St. Pierre’s senior stalwarts at Penn State, Jackie Rogowicz, a two-time PIAA Classs AAA runnerup at Pennsbury, Lauren Waller, a runnerup to North Carolina’s Walker in the 2014 PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at Canon-McMillan, and former Villa Maria Academy standout Cara Basso, the reigning two-time winner of  the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match-Play Championship, got off to good start as the Nittany Lions are tied for fourth with two other teams at 3-under with some work still to do.

   Joining Penn State at 3-under are No. 8 Furman and tournament host College of Charleston. No. 18 Wake Forest is alone in seventh at even-par. All four of those teams will finish their rounds beginning at 8 a.m. Monday.

   Walker and the No. 25 Tar Heels are alone in 15^th in the 19-team field at 5-over.

   Brooks, the 2015 U.S. Women’s Amateur runnerup who rejuvenated her golf game with the Gators last season, fired a sparkling 7-under 65 over the 6,261-yard, par-72 Yeamans Hall layout to grab a two-shot lead in the individual standings.

   Teammate Clara Manzalini, a freshman from Italy, is in a group of five players, two of whom still have some work to do, tied for third at 3-under after she carded a solid 69.

   Addie Baggarly, a sophomore from Jonesborough, Tenn., and Marta Perez, a junior from Spain, both matched par with a 72 and are in the group tied for 27^th. Rounding out the Florida lineup was Jenny Kim, a freshman from Orlando, Fla. who is in a group tied for 53^rd at 2-over 74.

   Competing as an individual, Florida’s Lauren Waidner, a sophomore from Fleming Island, Fla., matched Kim’s 74 and is also in the group tied for 53^rd.

   Rogowicz, who earned her second trip to the U.S. Women’s Amateur this summer, is leading the way for Penn State at 2-under through 12 holes. That leaves in her the group tied for eighth.

Sarah Willis, a freshman from Eaton, Ohio making her collegiate debut, is 1-under through 15 and among the group tied for 15^th.

   Waller and Ashni Dhruva, a junior from Katy, Texas, are even-par through 15 and are part of the group tied for 27^th. Basso, who represented Penn State in the NCAA’s Madison Regional as an individual last spring, is 1-over through 15 in the group tied for 41^st.

   Walker, who played in the U.S. Women’s Amateur for the third time this summer, had just birdied the par-5 15^th hole to get to even-par and join the group tied for 27^th when play was suspended – or at least the birdie at 15 was the last recorded hole for her. She had a solid round going, with two birdies offsetting two bogeys.

   Walker must have been playing well leading up to the season opener as she is listed as the No. 1 player in the North Carolina lineup, although that doesn’t mean a whole lot once the ball is in the air.

   Ava Bergner, a sophomore from Germany, and Jennifer Zhou, a freshman from Longwood, Fla., are among the group tied for 41^st at 1-over. Like Walker, Bergner has completed 15 holes while Zhou has just one hole to complete in her round.

   Nicole Lu, a freshman from Taiwan, is in the group tied for 65^th at 3-over through 15 holes. Kelly Whaley, a senior from Farmington, Conn. and the Tar Heels’ best player last season, is struggling at 5-over through 15 holes and is in the group tied for 87^th. Pretty sure she’s going to finish higher than that.

   Tennessee’s Micheala Williams, a junior from Athens, Ala., is 5-under through 12 holes and sits in second place, two shots behind Brooks.

   The formidable presence of Arkansas’ Maria Fassi, a senior from Mexico and the reigning Annika Award winner, is in the group along with Florida’s Manzalini at 3-under. Fassi completed her round, a typically solid 3-under 69. One other player, Vanderbilt’s Courtney Zeng, a senior from Orlando, Fla., also completed a 3-under 69.

   Rounding out the group tied for third at 3-under are a couple of South Carolinians – College of Charleston’s Victoria Huskey a junior from Greenville, and Furman’s Natalie Srinivasan, a junior from Spartanburg – who have completed 15 holes.