It seems from the early returns in women’s college golf that
there are five super teams and three of them will be action beginning Friday
when Brynn Walker and North Carolina play host for the Ruth’s Chris Tar Hell
Invitational.
Arkansas and Alabama, No. 1 and 2, respectively in the
latest Golfweek rankings and Duke are
in the field at the University of North Carolina’s Finley Golf Course in Chapel
Hill, N.C. They would be three of what I would call the super teams.
Stanford would be the fourth and the fifth would be Texas. I’m
basing this on sheer talent, but golf is never that simple and, as I mentioned last
week, there is no guarantee that any of these teams return from the midseason
break in February completely intact.
Texas played host to its annual fall tournament, the Betsy
Rawls Longhorn Invitational, earlier this week and for the eighth time, but
only the first time since 2011, the homestanding Longhorns claimed the team title.
The Betsy Rawls wrapped up Tuesday.
They were led by reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion
Sophia Schubert, a senior from Oak Ridge, Tenn. Schubert was a very good player
as a junior, but the confidence boost you get from winning an event of the stature
of the U.S. Amateur has clearly taken Schubert’s game to another level.
Schubert had rounds of 69, 70 and 71 over the 6,491-yard,
par-72 University of Texas Golf Club layout in Austin, Texas for a 6-under 210
total that was four shots better than her teammate Emilee Hoffman, a sophomore
from Folsom, Calif. who opened strong with rounds of 71 and 67 in Monday’s
double-round, but fell back a little with a 4-over 76 in the final round.
The 1-2 finish by Schubert and Hoffman enabled the Longhorns
to finish with a 2-over 866 total that was 15 shots better than runnerup
Furman.
The Longhorns were under par in each of Monday’s rounds,
opening with a 2-under 286 and adding a 6-under 282 in the second round before
falling back with a 10-over 298 in the final round. Furman had the best round
of the day Tuesday, a 1-over 289 that enabled the Paladins to charge up the
leaderboard to finish second at 17-over 881.
Reigning national champion Arizona State, which might argue
for its inclusion in the group of super teams, was another shot behind Furman
in third at 18-over 882 after a final round of 301. Houston finished fourth at
26-over 890 after a final round 300 and UNLV took fifth in the 15-team field
with a 35-over total of 899 after a final-round 309.
Texas had two other members of its starting five in the top
20 in the individual standings as Kaitlyn Papp, the talented homegrown freshman
from Austin, finished tied for 16th at 5-over 221 with steady rounds
of 74, 73 and 74, and Greta Isabella Voelker, a sophomore from Germany,
finished tied for 18th at 6-over 222 with a pair of even-par 72s in
Monday’s double round and a final-round 78.
Texas’ other freshman phenom, Agathe Laisne, the French
woman who claimed the European Ladies Championship last summer, finished tied
for 28th at 8-over 224 after a final round of 5-over 77.
Texas also showed its depth with a couple of solid showings
from players competing as individuals. Maren Cipolla, a sophomore from
Lewiston, N.Y., finished tied for 24th at 7-over 223 highlighted by
a 3-under 69 in Monday’s afternoon round, and Maddie Luitwieler, a junior from
Katy, Texas who finished tied for 35th at 227 after opening with an
even-par 72.
Furman, like Arizona State and probably a dozen other teams,
isn’t so far behind my five super teams that the Paladins can’t beat any team
in the country in any given tournament.
Furman was led by Haylee Harford, a junior from
Leavittsburg, Ohio, and Natalie Srinivasan, a sophomore from Spartanburg, S.C.,
who finished third and fourth, respectively. Harford had steady rounds of 73,
70 and 72 to finish at 1-under 215 while Srinivasan, after opening with a
2-over 74, had a pair of 1-under 71s to finish at even-par 216.
Srinivasan was coming off a tie for third against an elite
field in the ANNIKA Intercollegiate, presented by 3M. She helped Furman finish
tied for fourth with Texas in the team standings in the ANNIKA.
Houston’s Leonie Harm, a junior from Germany, finished alone
in fifth at 1-over 217 after finishing up with a 1-over 73.
Two of the four players who finished in the group tied for
sixth at 2-over 218 were members of the Great Britain & Ireland team that
defeated the United States in the 2016 Curtis Cup Match.
Clemson’s Alice Hewson, a junior from the United Kingdom,
led the Betsy Rawls with rounds of 70 and 67 in Monday’s double-round before
falling back with an 81 in the final round. Arizona State’s Olivia Mehaffey, a
sophomore from Ireland, sandwiched an even-par 72 in the middle round with a
pair of 73s as the GB&I standouts both landed at 218.
They were joined at that figure by San Diego State’s Sara
Kjellker a freshman from Sweden who had a final round of even-par 72, and UNLV’s
Polly Mack, a freshman from Germany who also finished up with an even-par 72.
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