Tadokoro leads Jayhawks on day one of Cardinal Cup

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On a day where the shots were not falling the Jayhawks’ way, junior Sera Tadokoro powered her way to No. 3 on the leaderboard as the Kansas women’s golf team ended the first round of the Louisville Cardinal Cup in 11th place Friday afternoon.

Tadokoro was on fire during the front-nine, shooting even and carding three birdies and was in fourth place for a brief stint. She found some trouble on the back-nine and recorded a couple of bogeys but rebounded to end the day in a tie for third with a score of 1-under par 71.

“Sera had a solid round and is in great position going into tomorrow,” said head coach Erin O’Neil. “She had five birdies today so if she can eliminate some of the bogeys, she can really take her score low.”

Senior Yi-Tsen Chou bounced back after having trouble in her last couple of tournaments and was neck-and-neck with Tadokoro until the back-nine. Chou tallied a few too many bogeys and finished with a score of 4-over par 76.

Sophomore Pear Pooratanaopa and freshman Ying-Ting Hsieh were right alongside each other throughout the meet and both finished with a score of 8-over par 80.

As a team, Kansas sits in 11th place and will look to advance up the leaderboard during the second round.

"Most of our problems came from around the greens, in particular putting. These greens are very different from what we were just on, they are very fast with lots of slope. We have to do a better job with our speed on short and long putts. Hopefully tomorrow we can make the needed adjustments and stay strong mentally and make up some ground."

Erin O'Neil, Head Coach

The Jayhawks will compete in the second round of the Cardinal Cup on Saturday, October 19 with a tee time set for 9 a.m. (CT).

Fans can follow along throughout the tournament on the KU women’s golf social channels and via GolfStat.