With the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational teeing off
Friday at the University of North Carolina Finley Golf Course in Chapel Hill,
N.C., it was more about who was not there than who was.
I can’t remember Brynn Walker, the two-time PIAA Class AAA champion
at Radnor, not being in the starting lineup for North Carolina since she
arrived on the scene as a prized recruit late in the summer of 2016.
Walker is not in the lineup as North Carolina hosts the
Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational, although she has a legitimate excuse. Walker,
winner of the Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship
at her home course at St. Davids Golf Club this past summer, will be teeing it
up in the LPGA Qualifying Tournament’s Stage II, which gets under way Monday
at the Plantation Golf & Country Club in Venice, Fla.
The top finishers, a minimum of 30, in Stage II will advance to the LPGA
Q-Series, a marathon eight-round tournament over two weeks at the Pinehurst
Resort & Country Club’s No. 6 and No. 9 Courses. The top finishers at
Pinehurst -- it was the top 35 in the inaugural Q-Series a year ago -- will
earn LPGA Tour cards for the 2020
season.
Veteran North Carolina head coach Jan Mann knows that her
senior leader needs to pursue her dream of a career on the LPGA Tour.
“We’re excited for Brynn to have the opportunity,” Mann told
the North Carolina website. ”We’re going to miss her in the lineup, it’s tough to have one of our better players out
of the lineup, but we are giving other individuals the opportunity to compete.
I feel like we have a strong starting five, even with Brynn out of the lineup
and we are excited to tee it up.”
North Carolina’s Atlantic Coast Conference rival Wake
Forest, the NCAA Championship runnerup last spring at The Blessings Golf Club
in Fayetteville, Ark., grabbed the lead after Friday’s opening round with a
6-under-par 282 over the 6,379-yard, par-72 UNC Finley layout.
Despite losing Jennifer Kupcho to graduation and the LPGA
Tour last spring, Wake Forest hasn’t skipped a beat and came to the Ruth’s
Chris Tar Heel Invitational off back-to-back tournament wins at the ANNIKA
Invitational and the Lady Paladin Invitational.
A couple of Southeastern Conference representatives,
Kentucky and Alabama, were a shot behind the Demon Deacons in a tie for second
place at 5-under 283.
Host North Carolina was tied for fourth place with reigning
Big Ten champion Ohio State, just two shots out of the top spot at 4-under 284.
The Buckeyes were led by their sophomore standout Aneka Seumanutafa of
Emmitsburg, Md., who grabbed the individual lead with a sparkling 6-under 66.
ACC power Duke, which defeated Wake Forest in the Final
Match at The Blessings to claim the national championship last spring, was in a
tie for ninth place in the elite 18-team field with the SEC’s South Carolina
and the Big Ten’s Michigan at 5-over 293.
Leading the way for Wake Forest was Siyun Liu, a senior from
China who was among a trio of players tied for second place at 3-under 69,
three shots behind Seumanutafa.
Backing up Liu for the Demon Deacons was Rachel Kuehn, a
freshman from Asheville, N.C. who was among the group tied for sixth place at
2-under 70.
Emilia Migliaccio, a junior from Cary, N.C. and No. 12 in
the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), was a shot behind Kuehn in the
group tied for 15th place at 1-under 71. Migliaccio represented the
United States in the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru this past summer, earning
the individual gold medal in the women’s competition and helping the U.S.
strike gold in the mixed team competition as well.
Lauren Walsh, a freshman from Ireland, was among the group
tied for 24th place at even-par 72. Rounding out the Wake Forest
lineup was Letizia Bagnoli, a sophomore from Italy who was in the group tied
for 50th place at 2-over 74. Bagnoli was a key contributor to the
Demon Deacons’ run to the NCAA Final Match last spring.
Leading the way for North Carolina was Nicole Lu, a
sophomore from Taiwan who joined Wake Forest’s Liu and Alabama’s Angelica
Moresco, a junior from Italy, in the trio tied for second place at 3-under.
Jennifer Zhou, a sophomore from China, backed up Liu as she
was among the group tied for sixth place at 2-under 70.
Ava Bergner, a junior from Germany, was among the group tied
for 24th place at even-par 72. Rounding out the North Carolina lineup
were two freshmen, Kayla Smith of Burlington, N.C. and Krista Junkkari of Finland,
who has been the Tar Heels’ top performer in the early going this season. Smith
and Junkkari were among the group tied for 35th place at 1-over 73.
Another freshman, Aleks Golde of Atlanta, is competing as an
individual and was among the group tied for 59th place at 3-over 75.
Senior Mariana Ocano of St. Petersburg, Fla. is also competing as an individual
and opened with an 84 in her final appearance in the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational.
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