Spartans Ninth After 1st Round At A-Sun Championships
4/13/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
April 13, 2009
DeLand, Fla. - Making its first appearance in the A-Sun Championships, in fact its first appearance in any conference championship tournament ever, the USC Upstate women's golf team opened with a 322 and stands ninth after the first round of play Monday at Victoria Hills Golf Club.
Each of Upstate's players played solid golf for most of the day, but costly errors on two or three holes forced the Spartans to collectively drop several shots to the field. At one point during Monday's round, the Spartans were tied for fifth place. However, a shaky finish has relegated Upstate to ninth place.
"You have to play all 18 holes to shoot a good score and we played 15 or 16 well today, and not in any particular order," said Upstate head coach Todd Lawton. "Doing that is not going to put you in position to lead. We landed some balls in deep fairway bunkers and other hazards, and took a few untimely penalties at various points in the round. The attitude of each player is excellent and there's no doubt they feel the weight of this being their first opportunity in conference play."
While the first round score was not what Lawton or the Spartans expected in their first A-Sun Championships appearance, Upstate has had a habit of turning in their highest round of tournaments in the first round and then lowering its scores and moving up the leaderboard by the completion of the tournament. The fact that the Spartans have played well at Victoria Hills in the past should bolster the team as it heads into Tuesday's second round.
"This is an excellent course and one we know well," said Lawton. "The conditions were right for scoring today. Hopefully today's nice weather will continue tomorrow and the greens stay consistent so we can make a run and post better individual scores. We talked about this tournament being more of a marathon because its 18 holes per day for three days. We have to focus and execute every shot in our final two rounds."
While Upstate is in ninth place, the Spartans are just 12 shots out of fifth place in the tournament standings. Stetson, playing on its home course, opened the tournament with a 298 to take the first round team lead. The Hatters were the only team to break 300 on the day. Campbell is second two strokes back at 300 and is followed by defending tournament champion East Tennessee State (301), Florida Gulf Coast (305), Kennesaw State (310), Mercer (312), Belmont (314), Jacksonville (320), Upstate (322) and Lipscomb (326).
Stetson's Danielle Jackson opened the tournament with a 1-under-par 71 to take the individual lead. Richelle Wedzik turned in the low round of the day for Upstate, finishing with a 77 and is tied for 16th. After eight holes she was 1-under-par and in first place, but played holes 12-14 5-over to finish with the 77.
"Richelle had a short stretch of holes that kept her from being at par or better for her round," said Lawton. "She knows she's hitting the ball well and has confidence to score better tomorrow. Several of her tee shots and approach shots were all over the flag but the putts just didn't drop. She hit the hazard on No. 13 for her only bad hole of the day."
Julie Miller and Jennifer Judge each carded an 81 on the day and are tied for 33rd. Judge was solid throughout her round until she ran into the par-5 14th and the par-4 15th. She played those holes at 5-over-par, taking a triple bogey and a double bogey. Richia Wedzik posted an 83 on the day and is tied for 41st, while Audrey Church carded an 84 and is tied for 43rd.
The A-Sun Championships continue with the second round Tuesday morning before concluding Wednesday with the final of three rounds of play.
