Florida State head coach Amy Bond didn’t feel like her young
Seminoles had shown their best stuff when the opened the spring portion of the
2018-’19 season with a 12th-place finish against an elite field in
the Northrop-Grumann Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. last
month.
Florida State was again taking on an elite field in the
Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, an event played at the Long Cove Club’s Pete Dye
Course on South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island that has quickly become one of
women’s college golf’s most anticipated stops.
Maybe the Seminoles, No. 19 in the latest Golfstat rankings, snuck up on some
people in the Darius Rucker, but those days are over after they blew away the
field by 17 shots with a 2-under-par 850 total. Florida State, behind
impressive individual champion Frida Kinhult, a freshman from Sweden, closed
with a solid 1-over 285 Sunday, a day in which the 6,266-yard, par-71 Pete Dye
Course seem to be at its toughest.
Florida State made it to the NCAA Championship at Karsten
Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. last spring and its 12th-place
finish in stroke play was the second highest in program history. But this is a
completely different team and Kinhult, along with three other freshmen and
Amanda Doherty, a junior from Atlanta, proved to be a powerful quintet that
took the Darius Rucker by storm.
Kinhult was a known quantity. She is No. 8 in the Women’s
World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) for a reason. She rattled off a third
straight 3-under 68 Sunday for a six-shot victory over a pair of players that
included the No. 1 player in the Women’s WAGR, Wake Forest’s Jennifer Kupcho, a
senior from Westminster, Colo.
Florida State trailed tournament host South Carolina by two
when the Seminoles opened with an even-par 284 Friday. A 3-under 281 in
Saturday’s second round enabled them to open up an eight-shot advantage on
Atlantic Coast Conference rival Duke, ranked third in the country.
Florida State’s final round of 1-over 285 was the best of
the day. The Seminoles became the first team in the eight-year history of the
Darius Rucker to finish the weekend under par. Alabama captured the title with
a 14-over 866 total a year ago, although the weather conditions were probably a
little more challenging. But still …
No. 10 South Carolina, a Southeastern Conference power,
bounced back from a second-round 299 with the second-best round of the day, a
2-over 286, to get a share of second with another of Florida State’s ACC
rivals, No. 13 Wake Forest, at 15-over 867. The Demon Deacons closed with a
10-over 294.
Duke, the two-time reigning ACC champion, carded a 12-over
296 to finish a solid fourth at 17-over 869, two shots behind South Carolina
and Wake Forest.
It was another 13 shots back to a couple other strong
entries out of the SEC, No. 7 Vanderbilt and No. 11 Auburn, which shared fifth
place at 30-over 882. The Commodores and the Tigers both closed with a solid
12-over 296 rounds.
Reigning SEC champion Arkansas, ranked sixth, finished
seventh at 34-over 886, four shots behind Auburn and Vanderbilt after a final
round of 11-over 295. With this year’s NCAA Championship being held on the
Razorbacks’ home course, The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., they
are motivated to give the home folks something to cheer about in May.
No. 4 UCLA, one of the best in the West and the two-time
reigning Pac-12 champion, and No. 23 Furman shared eighth place at 35-over 887,
a shot behind Arkansas. The Bruins carded a final-round 303 and the Paladins
posted a final-round 304.
It was a lost weekend for former Radnor High standout Brynn
Walker and No. 33 North Carolina as the Tar Heels carded a final-round 307 to
sink to the bottom of the 17-team field at 911. The good news is that 13 of the
16 teams that finished ahead of them are ranked higher than the Tar Heels,
although I’m sure North Carolina relished the opportunity to prove it could
compete with some of those teams.
When Doherty won the title in The Sally, a prestigious stop
on the unofficial Orange Blossom Tour held at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond
Beach, Fla. over the midseason break, I mentioned that it had to be quite a
role reversal for her at Florida State.
She was the young, up-and-comer her first two years and
suddenly she was the veteran. Her 4-over 75 in the final round was a throw-out
for the Seminoles, but she finished among the group tied for 16th at
5-over 218.
Beatrice Wallin, like Kinhult a freshman and a Swede, and
Puk Lyng Thomsen, a freshman from Denmark, both landed among the group tied for
22nd at 6-over 219. Wallin, No. 35 in the Women’s WAGR, opened with
a sparkling 2-under 69 and closed with a 1-over 72. Thomsen struggled in the
opening round with a 76, but added a 1-under 70 in Saturday’s second round and
closed with a 2-over 73.
And then there was Amelia Williamson, a freshman from
England. She struggled in the opening round with an 81. But then she delivered
an even-par 71 Saturday to displace Wallin’s 78 and a 1-over 72 in Sunday’s
final round that made Doherty’s 75 inconsequential.
Williamson finished among the group tied for 41st
at 11-over 224, but she had nearly as much to do with Florida State’s
impressive victory as Kinhult’s three 68s. Well, almost, but you get the idea.
Florida State had only four rounds of 75 or worse. Of the
other 11 rounds, none were worse than 73. It makes you tough to beat in a
five-score-four, 54-hole stroke-play event.
Kupcho is the reigning NCAA individual champion and has
nothing left to prove on the college level. She struggled, for her, to a 2-over
73, but still got a share of second with Alabama’s Angelica Moresco, a
sophomore from Italy, at 3-under 210. It says all you need to know about
Kinhult’s second career individual victory that Kupcho and Moresco finished six
shots behind her.
Moresco was the picture of consistency, posting three
straight 1-under 70s on the demanding Pete Dye Course.
Duke’s Jaravee Boonchnant, a sophomore from Thailand and No.
23 in the Women’s WAGR, finished alone in fourth at 1-under 212, two shots
behind Kupcho and Moresco, after carding her second straight 1-under 70.
Boonchant’s teammate, Gina Kim, a pretty talented freshman
herself from Chapel Hill, N.C. and No. 41 in the Women’s WAGR, shared fifth
place with Arkansas’ Kaylee Benton, a senior from Buckeye, Ariz., and Auburn’s
Mychael O’Berry, a sophomore from Hoover, Ala., all of whom ended up at
even-par 213.
Kim began the day trailing Kinhult by three shots, but fell
back with a 3-over 74. Benton, who lost to eventual champion Kristen Gillman in
the semifinals of last summer’s U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Golf Club of
Tennessee, capped a strong weekend with an even-par 71. O’Berry improved by a
shot every day, opening with a 1-over 72 and adding an even-par 71 Saturday
before finishing up with a 1-under 70 in Sunday’s final round.
Baylor’s Gurleen Kaur, a sophomore from Houston, finished
alone in eighth at 1-over 214 after closing with a 2-over 73 and Georgia’s
Jenny Bae, a freshman from Suwanee, Ga., was ninth at 2-over 215 after posting
a 1-over 72 in the final round.
North Carolina’s best finish in the individual standings actually
belonged to Jennifer Zhou, a freshman from China who was competing as an
individual. Zhou’s final round of 7-over 78 left her in the group tied for 46th
at 12-over 225.
Ava Bergner, a sophomore from Germany, was the top finisher
among the Tar Heels in the lineup. She struggled in the final round with a 79
to land among the group tied for 51st at 226.
Walker, a junior who won two PIAA Class AAA titles at
Radnor, had the best round of the day for North Carolina with a 4-over 75 and
finished in the group tied for 53rd at 227.
Kelly Whaley, the Tar Heels’ senior leader from Farmington,
Conn., and Nicole Lu, a freshman from Taiwan, both landed among the group tied
for 69th at 231. Whaley finished up with a 5-over 76 while Lu
struggled home with an 81.
Mariana Ocano, a junior from St. Petersburg, Fla., finally
got her bearings a little, posting a final-round 77 to finish in the group tied
for 86th.
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