The women’s golf team put forth a solid effort in its last tournament of the fall season Tuesday.
The Eli women concluded the two-day, 11-team John Kirk-Lady Panther Golf Invitational in Stockbridge, Ga., edging Middle Tennessee State University by one point to take fourth overall. Yale finished the tournament with a total of 609 strokes over two rounds of play.
In the first round, January Romero ’06 led the Bulldogs with a two-over-par 74 and was tied for fifth place overall. Anna Scott, from Georgia State University, led the entire tournament Monday. She was the only player to go under par with 69 strokes.
For the Elis in the first round, Ellie Brophy ’08 and Lindsay Hong ’08 each tied for 10th with 76 strokes, while Lauren Ressler ’06 shot a 79 to earn 34th overall. Marion Stanley ’07 rounded out Yale’s lineup for the first day in 59th place with a score of 89.
The Elis combined to shoot an opening round 305, which put them in fourth place, right behind Alabama-Birmingham with 302. Campbell University was second with 301, and Georgia State University stood in first with a 294.
Yale found itself Tuesday struggling to keep the position it earned the previous round.
Middle Tennessee, which had finished the first day overall in fifth place with 310 strokes, crept closer and closer to the Elis as each Blue Raider shot a better game than the day before. The Bulldogs, on the other hand, were having a little more trouble.
“Tennessee in the second round played well all across the board,” said Romero. “At the time, we didn’t really know how close the score was.”
Brophy finished the contest in 15th place after shooting the same score as the first day with a total of 152 strokes. Romero and Ressler both went a shot over their previous scores to finish fourth with 149 strokes and 35th with 159 strokes, respectively.
It was Hong, however, who saved the day, shooting a 73, three less than the previous round. Hong’s total of 149 left her in a tie for fourth with Romero.
“It was a good way to end the season,” said Ressler. “Most of us made some of our lowest scores of the season.”
Stanley also improved her score by a single stroke in second-round action to finish with a 177 for 59th place, but only the top four scores counted at this invitational.
Hong was optimistic about the team’s overall performance in its final test of the fall campaign.
“I think we all did really well today,” said Hong. “And we finished our final game of the season very strong.”
After Scott struggled on her second day and shot an abysmal 78 — nine more than her first round — Campbell took the overall lead to finish first with 598 strokes. Georgia State took second with 603 strokes, and Alabama-Birmingham held on to third with a 606. The Elis ended the competition with a total of 609 strokes, slipping past Middle Tennessee by one. Yale was the lone representative from the Ancient Eight at the tournament.
The invitational concluded the fall season for the Bulldogs women’s golf team. The team’s next match will be in the spring at the Peggy Kirk Invitational in Orlando, Fla.
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