Women’s golf remains tied for sixth at Lady Paladin Invitational

GREENVILLE, S.C. – On its second day of action in the Lady Paladin Invitational, the Kansas women’s golf team saw a big day from freshman Phisitkhwan “Pear” Poortanaopa in only the second tournament of her young collegiate career on Saturday. The Jayhawks still haven’t moved spots on the leaderboard as they still sit in a tie for sixth place with South Florida.
 
“Pear” couldn’t find her groove early but picked back up on the back nine as she eagled No. 11 and followed it up with a birdie on No. 13 to move up 21 spots on the leaderboard. This marked the first eagle of her collegiate career. She continued with birdies on No. 15 and No. 18 as she finished with a score of 70 and shot 2-under, which is her lowest-round score so far as she led the Jayhawks in scoring and sits in a tie for 12^th place.
 
“Pear and Sera had great rounds today and set the pace for us,” head coach Erin O’Neil said. “Sera was finally able to break through and get some birdies on the front nine today and I know that gave her a lot of confidence going into the last half of the day. Pear really got going on the back nine shooting -5 which was very exciting to see a freshmen do.”

 Sophomore Sera Tadokoro sparked the Jayhawks early on her way to a big day as she finished second in scoring and moved up 16 spots on the leaderboard to sit in seventeenth place. She birdied her first hole of the day and carded another on No. 7 to sit at 2-under going into the back nine.
 
Collectively, the Jayhawks shot a 7-over par 295 and have a two-day score of 16-over par 592.
 
Freshman Abby Glynn, playing as an individual, improved greatly from day one. Her birdie on No.13 helped her stay even through the back nine despite one bogey. She finished 5-over on the day due to a trio of bogeys to close out the round, which is five strokes better than her score yesterday.
 
Despite an early bogey and double bogey, individual Chomchana Phuchanbanchob used three birdies on the back nine to stay 1-over par through the back nine. Her three birdies on the back nine tied the total amount she carded on day one. She used a 1-under performance on the front nine to finish even on the day and finished with five birdies.
 
Chou carded three early bogies on the front nine but bounced back with a bogey on No. 9 to put her at 2-over going into the back nine. She dropped on the leaderboard to finish tied for 34th.
 
To round out the scoring, freshman Lauren Heinlein carded a birdie on No. 8 but couldn’t maintain a consistent mark as she recorded a trio of bogeys on the back nine to put her at 7-over on the day with a score of 79. Senior Ariadna Fonseca Diaz stayed even through the first four holes before a tough stretch of a consecutive bogey and double bogey. She parred six holes and her birdie on the back nine helped her finish 5-over.

“Tomorrow we still need to do more of what we did today which was to play for the right section of the greens and have a good day with the putter,” O’Neil said. “I’m sure the hole locations will be tougher since it’s the final day so it will be critical that we are disciplined in our decisions.”

Tee times start Sunday at 9 a.m. (EST) with a shotgun start to begin the final round of play. Live scoring will be available here: https://www.birdiefire.com/tournament/52394/
 
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