While most of the Division I college golf programs were shut down by the coronavirus pandemic in the fall portion of the wraparound 2020-2021 season, Big 12 teams played in several tournaments.
Baylor won three of those tournaments and the Bears continued their trend of going into events hosted by their Big 12 sisters and winning them when they easily captured the team crown in Southern Methodist’s Trinity Forest Invitational, which wrapped up Tuesday at Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas. That’s four tournaments and four wins for the Bears.
Baylor was ranked No. 20 by Golfstat when the ill-fated 2019-’20 season came to a sudden end last March. With Golfstat only ranking the teams that played in the fall, the Bears finished the fall portion of the 2020-’21 season sitting at the top of the rankings. Winning the team title in the Trinity Forest Invitational shouldn’t do anything to loosen the Bears’ grip on that No. 1 ranking.
In his 10th season as the head coach at Baylor, which includes a run to the NCAA Championship’s Final Match in 2015 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla., Jay Goble has a good thing going in Waco.
In addition to Baylor’s team wins in last fall’s Schooner Fall Classic, hosted by Oklahoma, the Betsy Rawls Invitational, hosted by Texas, and the Cowgirl Classic hosted by Oklahoma State and this week’s Trinity Forest Invitational, one of the Bears have hoisted the individual trophy in all four events.
This week it was Hannah Karg, a redshirt freshman from Germany who fired a 4-under-par 68 over the 6,258-yard, par-72 Trinity Forest Golf Club layout in Tuesday’s final round to erase a five-shot deficit to Oklahoma State’s Maja Stark, a sophomore from Sweden and No. 8 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), and edge Stark by a shot.
Baylor veteran Gurleen Kaur, a junior from Houston, was the individual champion in both the Schooner Fall Classic and the Betsy Rawls Invitational and another veteran, Elodie Chapelet, a senior from France, won the individual crown in the Cowgirl Classic.
The Trinity Forest was scheduled to be 36 holes Monday and 18 holes Tuesday. The field was unable to complete two rounds Monday and had to finish up the second round Tuesday before playing the final round later Tuesday. It looks like cold-weather gear was very much in order for the first two days of February in Dallas, but with the memory of the cancelled spring portion of the 2019-’20 season fresh in their minds, I’m sure most of the women were happy to be out there competing.
Baylor put itself ahead to stay with an opening round of 4-under 284. When the second round was complete, Baylor had added a 6-over 294. The Bears had the best round of the day in Tuesday’s final round with a 1-under 287 that left them with a 1-over 865 total.
Oklahoma State, which was No. 17 when the 2019-’20 season was halted and was No. 10 heading into the Trinity Forest, was solid, the Cowgirls opening with a 4-over 292 and adding a 5-over 293 before closing with a 6-over 294 to earn runnerup honors at 15-over 879, 14 shots behind Baylor.
Texas is always the team to beat in the Big 12 and the Longhorns were rolling, ranked No. 2 by Golfstat when the 2019-’20 season came to a premature end. Texas entered the Trinity Southern at No. 20 in the latest Golfstat rankings and the Longhorns played without senior Kaitlyn Papp, the Austin home girl who is No. 9 in the Women’s WGAR and contended for a long time in the December U.S. Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston before settling for a tie for ninth place and low-amateur honors.
Papp’s absence was excused, though, as she spent last Friday and Saturday participating in a practice session for this year’s rescheduled Curtis Cup Match as a candidate for the U.S. team. The audition was held at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Fla.
The Longhorns finished third at Trinity Forest, but it was a distant third, 12 shots behind Oklahoma State at 27-over 891. Texas opened with a 10-over 298 and added a 302 before closing with a solid 3-over 291.
It was 12 more shots back to Kansas State, No. 23 in the latest Golfstat rankings, in fourth place at 39-over 903, although the Wildcats had the second-best team score of the final round with a solid 1-over 289. Texas Tech, ranked 14th when the fall part of the season wrapped up in November, was a shot behind Kansas State in fifth place in the 14-team field with a 40-over 904 total, the Red Raiders also finishing up strong with their best round of the tournament, a 5-over 293.
Karg matched par in the opening round with a 72 and added a 1-under 71 in the second round, which left her five shots behind Stark, who had blistered the Trinity Forest layout with a sizzling 6-under 66 in the opening round before adding an even-par 72 in the second round.
But Karg’s final-round 68 left her with a 5-under 211 total. She made up six shots on Stark, who closed with a 2-over 74 to finish alone in second place at 4-under 212.
Two more Baylor Bears, Chapelet and Rosie Beisham, a freshman from England, were in the group of four players tied for third place at 3-over 219, seven shots behind Stark. Both contributed a 3-under 69 to Baylor’s strong opening round. Chapelet added a 76 in the second round before closing with a 2-over 74. Beisham struggled a little in the second round with a 77 before finishing up with a solid 1-over 73.
Britta Snyder, a freshman from Ames, Iowa, gave Baylor four players in the top 10 as she finished in a tie for ninth place at 5-over 221. Snyder struggled in the opening round with a 79 before bouncing right back with a 2-under 70 that was Baylor’s best score of the second round. Snyder finished up by matching par with a 72.
Rounding out the Baylor lineup was Kaur, who finished among the group tied for 23rd place at 11-over 227. Kaur opened with a 2-over 74 that was a counter for the Bears, but struggled in the final two rounds with respective rounds of 77 and 76.
Joining the Baylor pair of Chapelet and Beisham in the quartet tied for third place 3-over were BYU’s Allysha Mae Mateo, a junior from Honolulu, Hawaii, and Nebraska’s Kate Smith, a fifth-year senior from Detroit Lakes, Minn.
Mateo added a 2-under 70 to her opening-round 73 before finishing up with a 4-over 76. Smith was one of the Big Ten’s best players when her senior season was halted by the pandemic and she accepted the NCAA’s offer for an extra year of eligibility to make up for that lost spring. After struggling with rounds of 75 and 76 in the first two rounds, Smith closed with a sparkling 4-under 68 to get her share of third place.
Texas Tech’s Sofia Garcia, a junior from Paraguay and No. 45 in the Women’s WAGR, and Tulsa’s Haley Greb, a senior from Pendleton, Ore., finished in a tie for seventh place at 4-over 220. Garcia struggled in the second round with an 80, but bookended that effort with a pair of 2-under 70s. Greb also closed with a 2-under 70 to move into the top 10.
Joining Baylor’s Snyder in a tie for ninth place at 5-over 221 was Oklahoma State’s Lianna Bailey, junior from England who closed with her best round of the tournament, matching par with a 72.
Greb’s Tulsa teammate, Lorena Tseng, a junior from Taiwan, Texas-San Antonio’s Camryn Carreon, a sophomore home girl from San Antonio, and host SMU’s Nicole Vivier, a freshman from Austin, Texas, finished in a tie for 11th place at 6-over 222.
Tseng sandwiched a 76 in the second round with a pair of 1-over 73s. Carreon got a little better each round, adding a 74 to her opening-round 76 before matching par in the final round with a 72. Vivier had to be disappointed with her second-round 84 after she had opened with a 2-under 70. But she responded with a sparkling 4-under 68 in Tuesday’s final round to get her piece of 11th place.
Competing as an individual for SMU was sophomore Katie James, who led Shady Side Academy to the PIAA Class AAA team crown in 2016 at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County. James finished in a tie for 60th place at 238, adding a 78 to her opening-round 79 before finishing up with an 81.
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