Kansas Concludes Big 12 Women's Golf Championship
April 29, 2012
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Another rainy day at Lawrence Country Club delayed the start of the final round an hour on Sunday before the golfers were taken to designated holes for a shotgun start at 9 a.m. Play was then suspended again for an hour about halfway through the round due to lightning.
The Kansas women’s golf team finished the tournament in 10th place with a three-day total of 951 (338-307-306). The Jayhawks battled with the weather all weekend. Normally, rain would have done a number on a golf course to make it much more difficult to play. However, Lawrence Country Club held up great and head coach Erin O’Neil thought the course was in great condition all weekend.
“I think the course held up great, especially today,” O’Neil said. “I think we got an inch and a half of rain in a pretty short amount of time but when we went back out it was pretty dry and the greens were rolling well.”
Sophomore Thanuttra Boonraksasat and junior Audrey Yowell finished the weekend tied for 30th with three-day totals of 236. Coach O’Neil thought Yowell did well despite having a difficult second round.
“Audrey had a good round today,” O’Neil said. “Yesterday she was in a little different position of being in the top 10 going into the second round and didn’t have the best day but came back today and shot 74.”
Senior Katy Nugent played in her last tournament as a Jayhawk and made sure to conclude her career strong. Nugent carded a five-over 75 and a 54-hole total 242 to wrap up the weekend in a tie for 39th. Coach O’Neil was proud to see her senior end her career on a good note.
“Katy finished strong,” said O’Neil. “She finished strong today and finished her college career on a good note so I was proud of her for that. She had some funky shots here and there but still managed to pull a par out a lot of the times which she’s really good at doing.”
Sophomore Meghan Potee came in 42nd, carding a three-day total 243 (91-73-79) while freshman Gabby DiMarco experienced her first Big 12 Championship as a Jayhawk, coming in 50th with a 54-hole total 253 (89-80-84).
With the pressure of hosting a Big 12 Championship comes nerves and some tightness to the players’ games but Coach O’Neil thought her team did well considering the crazy weather and pressure of performing well.
“It was a tough weekend,” O’Neil said. “Friday obviously we had the wind which was pretty brutal and then today going back and forth with the rain delays. We managed to get the rounds in though and hang in there.”
“It was really exciting,” O’Neil added of hosting the Big 12 Championship. “It was neat to show it off to everybody and then obviously you want to play well that much more so that’s a little extra pressure. We really enjoyed having everybody here, being home and being comfortable on the course as well.”
To help pass the time during the day’s rain delays and keep the team focused under the pressure, O’Neil kept her team busy with a puzzle.
“This trip, we had puzzles for when we got delayed,” O’Neil said. “They like to do puzzles so we were doing a giant 1000 piece puzzle in the ladies locker room. We just put two card tables together and kept them occupied and it made the time go by fast.”
The Jayhawks complete the season with six top-10 finishes and graduate two seniors in Katy Nugent and Maria Jackson.
