Indiana women’s golf placed 14th in a challenging field at the VyStar Gators Invitational this weekend. Its 54-hole score of 903 was 63-over par and trailed 13th place East Tennessee State University by 13 strokes.
The Hoosiers’ first-round score of 308, 28-over par is what ultimately kept the team from placing higher. Freshman Aine Donegan led the way with a first round score of 76, 6-over par, followed by freshman Margaret Fernandez and junior Valerie Clancy, who each shot 77, 7-over par.
The Hoosiers improved by nine strokes in their second 18-hole round Saturday, scoring a collective 299, 19-over par. Donegan shot an even-par 70 and senior Alexis Miestowski shot a 74, 4-over par.
Indiana again improved its score in the final round on Sunday, scoring 296 for a 16 over-par performance. Donegan once again led the way with a 71, 1-over par and senior Mary Parsons had her best round of the weekend scoring a 73, 3-over par. Donegan finished tied for 22nd overall scoring a 217, 7-over par.
The Universities of Florida and Michigan came back in the final round to tie for first place, each scoring an 851, 11-over. Michigan senior Ashley Lau won the individual title with a dominant 203, 7-under performance. This was the seventh consecutive victory for Florida in the event.
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Clancy tied for 60th, finishing with a score of 228, 18-over. Miestowski finished in 62nd place with a score of 230, 20-over. Parsons tied for 63rd with a 21-over 231, while Fernandez finished in 68th with a 24-over 234.
The invitational’s field consisted of 13 teams ranked inside the Golfstat top 60. Tournament winners Florida and Michigan ranked No. 7 and No. 10 coming into the weekend, respectively.
Indiana struggled to climb the leaderboard due to its failure to capitalize on scoring chances. The Hoosiers ranked 14th in birdies made with just 17, an insignificant amount compared to Campbell University, who led the category with 39 and finished in seventh place.
These shortcomings went hand-in-hand with Indiana’s lack of success on par-5 holes. The Hoosiers averaged a score of 5.38 on par 5s and scored 17-over on the holes, coming in 14th in that category as well and far behind the 13 teams ahead of them. East Tennessee State, the first team ahead of Indiana, came in 13th with a 5.20 average and 9-over.
Next up for Indiana is a trip to Johns Island, South Carolina, where the team is scheduled to compete in the Briar’s Creek Invitational on March 14-15.
