Aurora Kan, the 2010 PIAA champion from Chichester,
represented Purdue as an individual as a junior at the NCAA Tournament a year
ago.
I’m fairly certain she wanted the rest of the Boilermakers
along for the party in her senior season and that’s exactly what Kan got
Saturday.
Purdue couldn’t sustain its sizzling second-round pace on a
day when the scores throughout the field were generally higher, but that middle
round gave the Boilermakers just enough cushion to enable them to survive a
tough final-round 306 Saturday and finish in a tie for fifth at the NCAA South
Bend Regional at the Warren Golf Course on the campus of Notre Dame.
Reigning national champion Duke, getting a 1-2 finish
individually from Leona Maguire, a freshman from Ireland, and Celine Boutier, a
junior from France and the reigning Player of the Year in college women’s golf,
held off ACC rival Wake Forest to take the team title by three shots.
Duke added a final-round 296 to its first two rounds of 288
and 289 for a 9-over 873 total. Wake Forest made up five shots on the Blue
Devils with a final-round 291 and, paired with its first two rounds of 293 and
292, gave the Demon Deacons an 876
total.
UC Davis (295-294-295) finished third at 884, Arizona
(294-292-300) was fourth at 886 and Tulane (298-298-295) and Purdue
(299-283-306) got the last two berths to the NCAA Tournament as they tied for
fifth at 888.
August Kim, a sophomore from St. Petersburg, Fla., fell back
from her spectacular second-round 69 with a final-round 75, but her 2-over 218
total gave her a tie for eighth in the individual standings.
Anna Appert Lund, a junior from Sweden, had a final-round 76
to finish in a tie for 21st at 222. Kan, with just one more
tournament remaining in her stellar collegiate career, struggled to a
final-round 78 for a 224 total that left her in a tie for 31st.
Marta Martin, a freshman from Spain, struggled with a 79 in the final round to
finish in a tie for 36th. Kan’s fellow senior and Appert Lund’s
fellow Swede, Johanna Tillstrom, counted for Purdue with her final-round 77 and
finished at 237 and in a tie for 86th.
The NCAA women’s tournament joins the men for the first time
this year in adding match play to the mix. After 54 holes of team play, the top
15 teams play one more round with the final eight survivors after that
round meeting in matches to determine
the NCAA champion. It’s probably not as fair as medal play, but hey it’s golf,
so it’s already unfair by definition. Bottom line: If you can get into the
match-play mix, anything can happen.
The individual champion will be crowned following those 72
holes of stroke play with players from the top 15 teams and the top nine
players from non-advancing teams following 54 holes in the mix for the
individual title.
It gets under way May 24, the Sunday of Memorial Day
weekend, at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla. In recent posts, I’ve
been bemoaning the fact that Purdue couldn’t crack the top 30 in any of the
women’s college polls. Well, there’s only 24 teams headed to Bradenton, so I
guess they’ve cracked the top 30 now.
In the individual chase at Notre Dame, Maguire overtook her
teammate, Boutier, with final-round 72 to finish at 4-under 212. Boutier led her
teammate by a shot going into the final round, but shot a final-round 74 to end
up a shot back of Maguire at 3-under 213.
There is a familiar name on the runnerup Wake Forest squad
as freshman Erica Herr, the two-time PIAA champion at Council Rock North,
carded a solid final-round 73 to finish in a tie for 41st at 227.
Meanwhile, maybe a thousand miles away, Herr’s younger sister was making some
noise.
Walker, Herr light it up Bandon Dunes
It was kind of difficult to know what to expect when
reigning PIAA champion Brynn Walker, a junior at Radnor, and her pal, Council
Rock North junior Madelein Herr, younger sister of Wake Forest freshman Erica,
teed it up in the inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship, which
got under way with the first round of stroke play Saturday at the Bandon Dunes
Golf Resort in Bandon, Ore.
It’s the first time the USGA has staged the event, for one thing.
And there were all kinds of good players in the field. When I checked the
starting times for Walker and Herr, I noticed they were a group ahead of one
Meghan Stasi. All she’s done is win eight Philadelphia Women’s Amateur titles,
four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur crowns and play on a winning U.S. Curtis Cup team.
Well, how about a sweet, five-birdie, one-bogey 4-under 68
over the 6,005, par-72 layout and a tie for fourth after the opening round.
That should put the District One All-Stars in pretty good shape for making the
top 32 teams that advance to match play following Sunday’s second round of
qualifying.
Walker, a North Carolina commit, and Herr, a Penn State
commit, got out of the gate with a birdie at the par-4 second and a birdie at
the par-5 third. A bogey at the par-3 fifth was the only blemish on the card.
On the back nine, they made birdie at the short par-3 11th and added
birdies at the last two par-5s, the 12th and 15th.
The USGA scorecard doesn’t say which player’s score counted, but it’s likely Walker’s
length played a role in the duo dominating the par-5s at Bandon Dunes. Of
course, if your partner is hitting it straight, that lets the longer hitter be
a little more aggressive. No matter who did what on what hole, you have to be
playing pretty good partner golf to do what Walker and Herr did Saturday.
By the way, Stasi, who calls Oakland Park, Fla. home these
days, and her partner, Dawn Woodard of Greer, S.C. had a five-birdie,
five-bogey round of even-par 72.
The first-round leaders are Athena Young of Winter Haven,
Fla. and Kendall Griffin of Sebring, Fla. who teamed up for a sparkling 6-under
66.
My advice to Walker and Herr in yesterday’s blog post was to
have fun and make as many birdies as you can. Well, they made some birdies and
I’m guessing they had some fun.
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