Arkansas claims team crown in Purdue Puerto Rico Classic; Davis makes debut with Auburn

 

   The Purdue Puerto Rico Classic, a staple of the early spring schedule, teed off this week at the Grand Reserve Golf Club in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico and a Southeastern Conference Championship broke out.

   The SEC Championship is more than two months away, but it might have been a preview of things to come in Puerto Rico.

   Arkansas, which has been a little down by its standards, rallied with a sizzling 12-under-par 276 in Tuesday’s final round to capture the team title, but only four shots separated the top four finishers and all four are SEC teams.

   But the really big story in Puerto Rico was the Auburn debut of one Anna Davis, who leaped into the consciousness of the golf world when she won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship as a 16-year-old two springs ago.

   Followers of junior golf knew how good Davis was and is, but hey, sometimes you have to jump up in one of the rare instances when they put women’s amateur golf on TV and let everybody know how good all these kids are.

   I knew Davis had committed to Auburn, but I was completely unaware that she was going to join the program in time for the second half of the wraparound 2023-2024 college golf season.

   The talented left-hander from Spring Valley, Calif., who is No. 7 in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), will be joined at Auburn by twin brother Billy, a pretty good player in his own right, when Billy Davis joins the men’s program at the end of the summer.

   I imagine that means Anna Davis will hang out for at least another full year at Auburn so she can enjoy going through the college experience with her twin brother. We’ll see.

   In the big picture, I would think adding Anna Davis to an Auburn lineup headed by reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Megan Schofill, a fifth-year player from Monticello, Fla. and No. 8 in the Women’s WAGR, would put the Plains Tigers smack in the middle of the national championship picture.

   Auburn will certainly get plenty of competition from its SEC sisters. I counted 13 SEC teams that were invited to NCAA regionals last spring. Two of them, conference champion Texas A&M and South Carolina, were among the eight teams still standing when match play got under way at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. Texas A&M fell in the semifinals to eventual national champion Wake Forest.

   Arkansas’ only top-10 finisher in Puerto Rico was Ela Anacona, a graduate student from Argentina who finished alone in 10^th place, but was competing as individual. Nobody in the Razorbacks’ lineup was great, but nobody was awful either.

   Arkansas struggled in the opening round with a 5-over 293, but moved up in Monday’s second round with a 3-under 285 that left the Razorbacks in fourth place, but just six shots out of the lead held by SEC rival LSU.

   Arkansas’ final-round surge, led by Maria Jose Marin, a freshman from Colombia who carded a sparkling 5-under 67, enabled the Razorbacks finish with a 10-under 206 total.

   Arkansas failed to advance out of the NCAA’s Palm Beach Regional to the NCAA Championship as an eight seed last spring.

   LSU, behind individual runnerup Ingrid Lindblad, a graduate student from Sweden who just happens to be the No. 1 player in the Women’s WAGR, came up just a shot behind Arkansas in second place, the Bayou Tigers closing with a 5-under 283 to finish with a 9-under 855 total.

   LSU had opened with a 5-under 283 to take the lead and, despite a 1-over 289 in Monday’s second round, still held a one-shot lead over Texas A&M going into the final round.

   It sounds to me that Lindblad is back for a fifth year because she’s got some unfinished business. After opening with a 71, Lindblad added a 3-under 69 in Monday’s second round before closing with a 4-under 68 for an 8-under 208 total that left her two shots behind individual champion Anna Morgan, a fifth-year player from at Furman from Spartanburg, S.C. and No. 47 in the Women’s WAGR who claimed her seventh collegiate victory.

   LSU has a terrific 1-2 punch at the top of its lineup in Lindblad and Latanna Stone, also a graduate student from Riverview, Fla. and the runnerup to Schofill in the all-SEC U.S. Women’s Amateur final at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles last summer.

   Stone finished in a tie for 16^th place with a 1-under 215 at Grand Reserve, but with Lindblad and Stone in the lineup, the Bayou Tigers have to be considered a national championship contender.

   LSU snuck out of the Palm Beach Regional last spring with a fifth-place finish as the top seed, but never really got it going at Grayhawk.

   Then there’s Auburn, which was nearly as impressive in the final round as Arkansas was, the Plains Tigers closing with a sizzling 11-under 277 to finish a shot behind LSU in third place with an 8-under 856 total. Auburn had opened with a 4-over 292 and added a 1-under 287 in the second round before going off in the final round.

   Auburn will get tremendous leadership from Schofill, who has been a star for the Plains Tigers ever since she arrived on campus a freshman in the ill-fated 2019-’20 season. You might recall that little global pandemic stopped the college golf season in its tracks four springs ago.

   Schofill was routinely excellent in Puerto Rico, adding a 1-under 71 in Monday’s second round to her opening-round 70 before contributing a 4-under 68 to Auburn’s final-round surge as she finished in a tie for third place with Texas A&M’s Bianca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, a graduate student from Spain, and Kansas State’s Carla Bernat, a junior from Spain, at 7-under 209, a shot behind Lindblad.

   It had to be a disappointing spring for Auburn a year ago when the Plains Tigers failed to advance to the NCAA Championship as a two seed in the San Antonio Regional. Don’t expect that to happen again.

   Anna Foster, a talented senior from Ireland, fueled Auburn’s final-round surge with a sizzling final round of 7-under 65 at Grand Reserve to finish in a tie for sixth place at 6-under 210.

   Davis was steady in her Auburn debut, closing with a 1-under 71 after posting a pair of 1-over 73s in the first two rounds to finish in the group tied for 25^th place with a 1-over 217 total.

   Auburn also comes at you with the underrated Casey Weidenfeld, a redshirt sophomore from Pembroke Pines, Fla. and No. 71 in the Women’s WAGR. Weidenfeld wasn’t at her best in Puerto Rico, but still finished in a tie for 38^th place with a 5-over 221 total.

   And don’t sleep on graduate student Ami Gianchandani, a product of The Pingry School who is taking the extra year of eligibility granted to players who missed the spring of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic at Auburn after starring at Yale.

   Pretty sure Gianchandani is the only player on the Auburn roster who can boast of a match-play victory over a major champion on the LPGA Tour. It was back in the summer of 2017 when Gianchandani stunned Patty Tavatanakit, 1-up, in the round of 16 in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Boone Valley Golf Club in Augusta, Mo.

   Gianchandani finished in a tie for 69^th place in Puerto Rico with a 228 total, but she, like Schofill, will provide the Plains Tigers with a veteran voice and is a proven commodity in match play.

   It was Texas A&M that made the deepest run of that loaded group that came out of last spring’s SEC Championship.

   In Puerto Rico, the Aggies trailed LSU by just a shot going into the final round after they added a 1-over 289 in Monday’s second round to their opening round of 4-under 284. Texas A&M closed with a 3-under 285 to finish two shots behind Auburn and just four shots behind tournament champion Arkansas in fourth place with a 6-under 858 total.

   Bianca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio sandwiched a 1-under 71 in Monday’s second round with a pair of 69s to get her share of third place in the individual standings.

   And Bianca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio is another entry in the talented sibling department. She is joined in the Texas A&M lineup this season by sister Cayetana and the freshman is the No. 2 player in the Women’s WAGR.

   Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio finished in a tie for 31^st place with a 3-over 219 total at Grand Reserve, but three of the five players in the Texas A&M lineup in Puerto Rico were in the lineup in last spring’s NCAA Championship semifinals against Wake Forest and you’re adding the No. 2 amateur player in the world who has her big sister along to guide her. Look out.

   Reigning Big 12 champion Oklahoma State finished two shots behind Texas A&M in fifth place with a 4-under 860 total. The Cowgirls were solid throughout, opening with a 2-under 286 and adding a 1-over 289 in Monday’s second round before closing with their best round of the tournament, a 3-under 285.

   Oklahoma State advanced to the NCAA Championship as a four seed out of the San Antonio Regional last spring. The Cowgirls got off to a good start at Grayhawk, but tailed off and were unable to make it into the match-play bracket.

   It was 10 shots back to Sun Belt Conference representative Georgia Southern as the Eagles finished in sixth place with a 6-over 870 total. Georgia Southern added a 4-over 292 in Monday’s second round to its opening-round 290 before matching par in the final round with a 288.

   TCU, another Big 12 entry, finished three shots behind Georgia Southern in seventh place in the strong  15-team field with a 9-over 873 total. After struggling in the opening round with a 296, the Horned Frogs bounced back with a 3-over 291 in Monday’s second round before finishing up with a solid 2-under 286.

   TCU advanced to the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk last spring with a fourth-place finish as a seven seed in the Raleigh Regional.

   As for the players who were actually in the lineup for tournament champion Arkansas, the Razorbacks were led by Kendall Todd, a junior from Goodyear, Ariz., and Reagan Zibliski, a sophomore from Springfield, Mo., both of whom finished in the group tied for 11^th place, each landing on 2-under 214.

   Todd added a solid 2-under 70 in Monday’s second round to her opening-round 71. Arkansas was so good in the final round it had the luxury to toss Todd’s 1-over 73.

   Zibliski, who had a standout junior career, matched par in each of the first two rounds with a pair of 72s before contributing a 2-under 70 to Arkansas’ final-round surge.

   Marin’s sizzling 5-under 67 in the final round moved her up the leaderboard into the group tied for 16^th place at 1-under 215. Marin struggled to a 77 in the opening round before bouncing back with a 1-under 71 in Monday’s second round.

   Miriam Ayora, a senior from Spain, closed with a 2-under 70 for the Razorbacks to finish in a tie for 23^rd place at even-par 216. Ayora opened with a 2-over 74 before matching par with a 72 in Monday’s second round.

   Kajal Mistry, a graduate student from South Africa, saved her best for last, contributing a 3-under 69 to Arkansas’ furious finish to land among the group tied for 35^th place with a 4-over 220 total. After opening with a 4-over 76, Mistry added a 75 in Monday’s second round.

   Really impressive performance by Furman’s Morgan in capturing the individual crown. After opening with a 4-under 68, Morgan added a 71 in Monday’s second round before finishing with a five-birdie, no-bogey 67 that gave her a 10-under 206 and a two-shot margin of victory over Lindblad.

   Morgan’s sixth career victory in the Landfall Tradition at the end of the Paladins’ fall campaign gave her Furman’s career record, breaking a tie with Hall of Famers Betsy King and Beth Daniel as well as Dottie Pepper and Jennifer Perri.

   Morgan, Auburn’s Schofill and Davis and LSU’s Stone were among the 12 players invited to a practice session last month at Seminole Golf Club and Pine Tree Golf Club in South Florida for candidates for the U.S. team for this year’s 43^rd Curtis Cup Match, which tees off Aug. 30 at Sunningdale Golf Club’s Old Course in Berkshire, England.

   Kansas State’s Bernat joined Schofill and Bianca Fernandez Garcia-Poggio in the tie for third place at 7-under. Bernat opened with a sparkling 5-under 67 before adding back-to-back 1-under 71s in the final two rounds.

   Auburn’s Foster was joined by Minnesota’s Isabella McCauley, a sophomore from Inver Grove Heights, Minn., in the tie for sixth place at 6-under 210.

   Foster opened with a 1-over 73 and matched par in Monday’s second round with a 72 before unleashing her sizzling final round of 7-under 65. McCauley opened with a 3-under 69 and added a 71 in Monday’s second round before closing with a 2-under 70.

   Purdue’s Momo Sugiyama, a junior from Australia, finished alone in eighth place, a shot behind Foster and McCauley with a 5-under 211 total. Sugiyama got off to a fast start with a 5-under 67 in the opening round and added a 73 in Monday’s second round before closing with a 1-under 71.

   Georgia Southern’s Haley Yerxa, a fifth-year player from Canada, finished a shot behind Sugiyama in ninth place with a 4-under 212 total. Yerxa matched par in the opening round with a 72 before adding back-to-back 2-under 70s in the final two rounds.

   Rounding out the top 10 in the individual standings was Arkansas’ Anacona competing as an individual. She probably earned some consideration for a spot in the first five for the Razorbacks as she matched par in the opening round with a 72 and added a 71 in Monday’s second round before closing with a 2-under 70 to finish alone in 10^th place with a 3-under 213 total.

   A couple of Bucks County products teed it up for host Purdue in Puerto Rico.

   Junior Natasha Kiel, a New Hope native, was in the lineup for the Boilermakers and finished among the group tied for 42^nd place with a 6-over 222 total. Kiel, who was a scholastic standout at the George School, added a 1-over 73 in Monday’s second round to her opening-round 74 before closing with a 75.

   Kiel spent the first two years of her college career at Vanderbilt before transferring to Purdue this season. Kiel lost in a playoff to Duke junior Rylie Heflin for the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship last summer at Sunnehanna Country Club in Johnstown.

   Junior Jade Gu, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Pennsbury, competed as an individual for Purdue and finished in the group tied for 66^th place at 227. Gu added a 3-over 75 in Monday’s second round to her opening-round 78 before closing with a 74.