Ebenhag, Hall Lead Spartans in Lowcountry Intercollegiate
3/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
Hilton Head Island, S.C. – Johanna Ebenhag and Amanda Hall each shot 83 to lead the USC Upstate women's golf team in the first round, and the Spartans stand ninth in the Lowcountry Intercollegiate Sunday afternoon at Moss Creek Golf Club.
Upstate opened with a 334 and stands ninth in the 14-team field. The Spartans are four strokes behind Western Kentucky in eighth and are 10 shots away from fifth place.
Appalachian State opened the tournament with a 314 and owns the first round lead by a single stroke over Gardner-Webb (315). Samford is third at 316 and is followed by Wofford (321), Richmond (324), Savannah College of Art & Design (325), Presbyterian College (325), Western Kentucky (330), Upstate (334), Radford (340), Winthrop (341), Brown (346), Tennessee Tech (348) and The Citadel (356).
Ebenhag (Gothenberg, Sweden) saved her round by exhibiting a strong short game. She had trouble off the tee, but made up for it around the greens to save strokes and post an 83.
"Despite not hitting her driver well, JoJo had at least seven up and downs for par and another three or four for bogey," said Upstate assistant coach Sandy Halkett. "Her short game was really sharp."
It was a solid day for Upstate, but also one where the team felt it could have done better."
Every member of the team feels like we could have done better and are ready to show that tomorrow," said Halkett. "This is a tight course which demands that you place your shots with precision. If you try to play the course on auto-pilot, you are going to have a long day. It requires continual course management. The players understand the course better and all of its challenges, and are ready to get back at it tomorrow."
The top four scores were extremely close for Upstate. Following Ebenhag and Hall (Tega Cay, S.C.), Rachel Lewis (Llanishen, Wales) and Taylor Pleier (Spartanburg, S.C.) each shot 84 on the day and are tied for 34th. Madison Bryant (Chapin, S.C.) struggled on the front nine, but recovered on the back by lowering her score by 11 strokes and looks to continue the improvement in Monday's final round.
Appalachian State's Yue Xu and Samford's Anna Heim each opened with 74 to take a share of the lead into the final round.
