Junior leads IU to 8th place finish at Lady Buckeye Invitational

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The sun was shining brightly throughout the weekend, but unfortunately for the Hoosiers it wasn’t shining on them. \nThe IU women’s golf team placed eighth in the 14-\nteam field at the Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational this weekend.\nIU coach Clint Wallman attributed the finish to bad ball placement.\n“(This course) had difficult greens and we were not in the right position to make putts,” Wallman said. \nLeading the way for the cream and crimson was junior Elaine Harris, who placed 30th. She said afterward that she figured out a lesson in golf strategy to improve her game in the future.\n“I learned that talking to myself in a positive way can help (my game),” Harris said. \nFinishing right behind Harris was freshman Laura Nochta, who placed two shot higher and scored a three-day total of 242.\n“We were all disappointed with our play,” Nochta said. “We all hit some good shots, however, and we hope to take that away (from this tournament).” \nAlso competing for the Hoosiers were freshman Anita Gahir, junior Lauren Harling, senior Kendal Hake and sophomore Amber Lindgren, who shot 243, 246, 252 and 257, respectively. \nHake said she was proud of the team for sticking it out throughout the tournament.\n“Our team can deal with anything, and the course was rough,” Hake said. “However, despite that, we didn’t give up and kept playing.” \nLindgren said the struggles were a natural part of the game that occur sometimes.\n“Murphy ’s Law got to us today, and everything that could go wrong did,” she said. “However, we hope to use all these mistakes and bad breaks as a learning experience”. \nRunning and hiding with this tournament was archrival Purdue, who won by 20 strokes over second-place Michigan State, and had the individual winner, sophomore Maria Hernandez, who finished one stroke under par. Finishing in third through fifth place were Kent State, host Ohio State and Iowa. \nThe Hoosiers will need to be back on top of their game next weekend as they travel to Michigan State for the start of postseason play in the Big Ten tournament. \nThe Hoosiers finished seventh on that golf course in the Lady Northern Invitational in October. In that tournament, freshman Kellye Belcher placed second in her second career college tournament. The good news for the Hoosiers is that they should have her back next weekend after she missed her first tournament of the year because of an illness.