Sept. 7, 2003
Normal, Ill. - The University of Missouri women's golf squad is in second place following the opening two rounds of the Illinois State Redbird Fall Classic. The first 36 holes were played on Sunday at the ISU Golf Course (Par 71, 5995 yards) in Normal, Ill. The course will be the site of the 2004 NCAA Central Regional, a site the Tigers hope to visit again in May. But today, Mizzou shot back-to-back rounds of 302 in the first two rounds and stand seven shots back of host school Illinois State, which fired rounds of 292 (an ISU school record) and 305 for a two round total of 597.
"We didn't play as well as we had hoped, but overall we had some solid performances in the opening two rounds," Cooper said. "We are in a good position to make a run at the title tomorrow but we need to be more consistent up and down our lineup to reach that point."
Junior Maria Ohlsson and sophomore Denise Knaebel both had excellent opening days at the tourney, both finishing the day in a tie for third place with two-round totals of 149, trailing SMU's Laura Cross by six strokes. Both Ohlsson and Knaebel had extremely solid opening rounds shooting 73 and 72 respectively and are in striking distance of the lead.
Two other Tigers finished the day in the Top 10 as sophomore Stephanie Turner shot her best round since last fall in the second round with a two-over par 74, putting her in seventh place. Freshman Lyndsey Adams, who is playing as an individual at the tourney, is in ninth place shooting rounds of 75 and 77 for a total of 152. Junior Mindy Bullard (82-75=157) and sophomore Kelli Strubinger (81-81=162) rounded out the Tigers scoring for the opening day of the fall season for Mizzou.
The Tigers will play in the final round on Monday with a shotgun start set for 8:30 a.m. Check www.mutigers.com in the late afternoon for final round results and a complete recap. For more information on Mizzou Women's Golf, log on to www.mutigers.com.
INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS Pl Player (School) 1st 2nd 3rd Tot 1 Laura Cross (SMU) 143 3 Denise Knaebel (MU) 72 77 149 Maria Ohlsson (MU) 73 76 149 7 Stephanie Turner (MU) 76 74 150 9 * Lyndsey Adams (MU) 75 77 152 Mindy Bullard (MU) 82 75 157 Kelli Strubinger (MU) 81 81 162