GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Furman women’s golf team is currently ranked 20th nationally by Golfstat and is ranked 25th in this week’s Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings.
The Paladins scored a 72.69 rating by Golfweek/Sagarin after recording the best round in school history to win the Florida State Match-Up on Feb. 15, defeating four teams ranked in the top 25. In the Paladins’ five tournaments this season, Furman is 5-3 versus teams in the top 25, has a 14-8 record versus top-50 teams, and is 35-10 versus teams in the top 100.
Furman sophomore Taylor Totland ranks 17th nationally by Golfstat and 33rd in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings. Totland, who has placed among the top 10 individuals in all five of Furman’s tournaments this season, leads the Paladins with a 71.7 stroke average over 15 rounds.
Totland fired a season-best 68 in the second round of the Lady Paladin invitational and carded a 70 on four different occasions so far this year. She won individual medalist honors at the Lady Paladin Invitational after scoring a three-round 209, the lowest 54-hole score in tournament history, and, most recently, tied for first place at the Florida State Match-Up.
“It has been quite a while since the Furman women’s golf team has been ranked in the top 20 this late in the season,” said Paladin head coach Kelley Hester, who is in her third year at the helm of the Furman program. “I think this is a great indicator that we are headed in the right direction, but we still have to go out and take care of the little things. Our ultimate goal is to be ranked inside the top 20 at the end of the season.
“Taylor is really putting together an impressive sophomore campaign,” added Hester. “She is positioning herself to become Furman’s first All-American since Jenny Suh in 2005.”
Furman opened the 2014 fall season with a victory at the Golfweek Program Challenge in Pawley’s Island then won the Lady Paladin Invitational in record-setting fashion, posting a three-round total of 860 to shatter the previous tournament low of 865. The wins marked the Paladins’ first two program wins under Hester. Also in the fall, Totland finished 10th at the Mercedes-Benz Intercollegiate then tied for fourth place individually to lead Furman to a third-place team finish at the Palmetto Intercollegiate.
The Paladins will compete at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in Hilton Head, S.C., March 6-8.