University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
Great Smokies Intercollegiate
Bryant Leads Upstate at Great Smokies Intercollegiate
9/17/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
Waynesville, N.C. – Madison Bryant shot the best two rounds of her career to lead the USC Upstate women's golf team at the Great Smokies Intercollegiate Monday afternoon at the Waynesville Inn Golf Resort and Spa.
The 36-hole tournament hosted by Western Carolina was supposed to be played with 18 holes Monday and Tuesday. However, with heavy rain forecasted for Tuesday, the second round was played Monday afternoon with the entire event played on Monday.
Upstate finished tied for 13th in the 15-team tournament field. The Spartans shot solid rounds of 309 and 318 to finish with a 627 total. Upstate tied The Citadel for 13th. Bryant (Chapin, S.C.), who had shot rounds of 91 and 90 in last year's Great Smokies Intercollegiate, continued to show tremendous improvement in her career. She shot back-to-back rounds of 77 to finish tied for 50th in the tournament. That marked an improvement of 27 strokes over last year's performance.
"I am really proud of Madison in leading us," said Upstate head coach Todd Lawton. "She played solid throughout the day, hit the ball well and made some putts. She played her last seven holes 1-under-par in the final round. Those holes were the toughest on the course."
"No one in the field was prepared to play 36 holes today, but we had to adjust because of the weather. It was tough to ask some of our players who have never had to play 36 holes in one day to go back out there, but we did it."
Morehead State won the Great Smokies Intercollegiate with a 575 total. The Eagles were followed by Western Carolina (582), Samford (584), Elon (586), Western Kentucky (596), Tennessee Tech (602), Savannah College of Art & Design (602), Presbyterian (605), UAB (606), Eastern Kentucky (607), Appalachian State (609), USC Beaufort (611), Upstate (627), The Citadel (627)and Sandhills CC (748) on the leaderboard.
Taylor Barnes (Spartanburg, S.C.) shot rounds of 77 and 78 to join Bryant as the only two Spartans to shoot both rounds in the 70s. She finished tied for 56th with a 155 total. Brittany Lowe (Spartanburg, S.C.) and Rachel Reiling (Littleton, Colo.) tied for 62nd with a 160 total. Lowe shot rounds of 79 and 81, while Reiling opened with a 76 and followed with an 84. Malika Allie (Cape Town, South Africa) shot rounds of 80 and 82 for a 162 total and claimed a tie for 70th.
"We have a lot of goals that we can work toward accomplishing this year and we are off to a good start," said Lawton. "We have had a lot of players contribute in our first two tournaments. There is some depth here that can put some good scores up there. This is such a good group of people and they can see that we can achieve some goals. That is not something that we have had for awhile and is something that the team has grabbed hold of and is working toward this season."
Morehead State's Linnea Scholin and Western Carolina's Taylor Allison tied for the tournament championship at 140.
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