Western Carolina wins UNF Intercollegiate
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Western Carolina put three golfers inside the individual top 10 en route to winning the 2014 UNF Intercollegiate held at the par-72, 6,144-yard Jacksonville Golf and Country Club. The team championship is the second this season for WCU while also representing the sixth top-10 and fifth top-five of the year.
Western Carolina led the tournament wire-to-wire, finishing 11 strokes ahead of second-place Daytona State, 919-930. Host North Florida was third, 14 strokes off the pace at 933, with Eastern Kentucky (941) and Old Dominion (944) rounding out the top five.
WCU sophomore Kristin Swindell carded a final round of 2-over-par 74 to finish with a 54-hole score of 226 to finish tied for the runner-up position, pacing the Catamounts. The Bradenton, Fla., native opened her final round at 1-under-par with a birdie on the par-4 second and five pars through her first six holes. However, she carded three straight bogeys before the turn, shooting 2-over on the front nine. Two birdies in the first four holes of the back nine left her even-par before bogeys on the par-5 14th and par-3 17th left her at 2-over for the day.
Swindell finished with 34 pars to rank tied for fourth in the field.
Taylor Allison shot 6-over-par 78 in the final round to finish tied for fifth in the final standings with a two-day total of 228. Allison was 4-over-par on the front nine at the turn with five bogeys and one birdie before shooting 2-over on the back, countering three bogeys with a birdie.
Freshman Olivia Landino posted a career-best finish, placing tied for seventh with a final score of 230, while sophomore Kim Mitchell finished tied for 24th at 240 and Mariah Hopkins in a tie for 29th at 241.
Allison led the tournament with nine birdies – two more than teammates Mitchell and Landino, who recorded the only eagle in the tournament. As a team, WCU led the tournament field with 30 combined birdies.
Playing unattached as individuals, WCU freshmen Bethany Galloway and Ashley Thompson finished tied for 48th and 74th, respectively. Galloway carded her best round on Tuesday, shooting 5-over-par 77 for a total of 249, while Thompson finished with a three-round score of 272.
Daytona State’s Tiffany Chan (218) claimed the individual medalist honors by eight strokes over the two-way tie between Swindell and Old Dominion’s Kim Bradbury, both with three-round scores of 226.
Western Carolina remains in Florida for its next tournament, the JMU Eagle Landing Invitational at the Eagle Landing Country Club in Jacksonville. The 54-hole event will be contested over three days, March 14-16.
Appalachian State finishes 14th at UNF Intercollegiate
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Appalachian State University women’s golf team finished 14th at the UNF Intercollegiate at the Jacksonville Golf Club.
Appalachian fared well in the first round, finishing tied for fifth place, but its position would diminish. Emily Stinson led Appalachian in the first round, firing a team-best 76 (+4). At the end of the first round, she was tied for fourth place. Hannah Craver and Madalyn Davis were right on her heels, shooting 77 (+5) and 79 (+7), respectively.
Appalachian could not keep shooting in the 70s in the second round and found itself in last place. Every Appalachian golfer was over-par in double digits. They could not recover in the third round and finished in 14th place.
Stinson finished tied for 34th overall but first for Appalachian, followed by Craver, who finished tied for 38th, and Davis, who finished tied for 62nd.
Conference rivals Western Carolina finished in the top spot at the UNF Intercollegiate.
The Mountaineers will step on the green again on March 16 at the Pinehurst Invitational in Pinehurst, N.C., on one of the oldest golf courses in the country, Pinehurst No. 1. Tee times are yet to be decided.