SMU Women’s Golf Wins 2nd-Consecutive Chip-N Club Invite
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LINCOLN, Neb. (SMU) – After a difficult round two yesterday, SMU women’s golf Head Coach Jeanne Sutherland gathered her team and told them to just play. Don’t worry too much about their standing or what happened yesterday. Just play in the present.
SMU certainly did that, and shot nearly even par at 1-over to take the Chip-N Club team title for the second-straight year. Freshman Alexandra Rossi took coach’s words to heart, bouncing back from a 9-over 81 in the second round to shoot a 4-under 68 in the final round, taking individual medalist honors in her first-career collegiate event.
“She managed the golf course a bit better today,” Sutherland said. “She scored with her putter instead of trying to from the fairway. She just played well the entire day. She placed the ball where she needed to.”
Rossi’s day climaxed at the par-5 17th. She double-bogeyed the hole in
round two yesterday, but nailed a 40-foot downhill putt for birdie today. For the freshman to come and win her first event certainly could mean bright things for the future.
“It’s definitely boosted my confidence a bunch,” Rossi, a native of Austin, Texas, said. “I’m looking forward to the rest of the tournaments.”
Rossi had finished round one as the overall leader at 2-under. After round two, she had fallen into a tie for fourth.
Each SMU player shot their best round in the final round, and Sutherland would like to see results like today’s on a regular basis as the season progresses.
“How we played today is what we’re going to need to do in every round,” Sutherland said. “We did a great job. Every player made a commitment and it was fun to watch. We stayed in the present. We just played golf and got the ball in the hole.”
Fellow freshman Jenny Haglund shot an even-par 72 on the final day to move up to fourth overall.
SMU won the team event last season and also had Felicia Espericueta win individual medialist honors.
The Mustangs will look to carry momentum from this event into next week’s Dale McNamara Invitational hosted by Tulsa. Play will begin Monday. Fans can follow the scoring live on GolfStat.com and also by keeping up on social media on Twitter or Facebook.
