Jayhawks wrap up Moon Golf Invitational

MELBOURNE, Fla. – After suspending the second round last night, Kansas wrapped up the second round and completed the final round in a tie for 13th place at the Moon Golf Invitational in Melbourne, Florida on Tuesday.

Junior Sera Tadokoro bounced back from her first two rounds and finished just outside of the top-20 on the leaderboard  in 21st place with a score of 2-under par 70. Tadokoro was much more consistent on the second day of the tournament, carding five birdies and improving her scores from the previous rounds by four shots.

“Sera had a solid final round today but still left some shots out there around and on the greens,” said head coach Erin O’Neil. “She’s hitting the ball well and just needs to fine-tune her putting and chipping to move up on the leaderboard moving forward.”

Sophomore Lauren Heinlein competed individually and went on a hot streak towards the end of the tournament. She shot 4-under on the back-nine while carding five birdies. Heinlein shot 2-under par 70 overall in the final round to finish in a tie for 35th place.

“We are really pleased with what we saw from Lauren this week,” said O’Neil. “She played consistently over the three days and finished strong today with an under par round. Hopefully it’s a good confidence boost for her and she can keep it going.”

Sophomore Pear Pooratanaopa also improved in the third round and shot 2-over par 74 to end in tie for 48th place.

The Jayhawks look to clean up their short game and get used to competing again before their next tournament.

“For this being the first tournament back we saw a lot of good things, but we also saw areas we can focus on the next two weeks before leaving for our next tournament,” said O’Neil. “Especially our short game and finishing stronger in our last few holes of a round. A few of the girls played their last three holes over par and those are shots that would have helped us move ahead of more teams. We haven’t competed since the end of October and you could definitely tell the little things weren’t as sharp as they could be.”

Kansas will take a two-week break and is back in action March 7-8 at the Gator Invitational in Gainesville, Florida.