May 5, 2005
LUBBOCK, Texas - The Missouri women's golf team has thrust itself into the thick of the title hunt of the 2005 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship Central Regional after firing its best-ever postseason round Thursday morning at The Rawls Course.
The Tigers are tied for second place with New Mexico, and just a stroke behind first-round leader Texas, after shooting an aggregate score of 3-over-par 291. That is just the third sub-300 round in MU postseason history - comprising six previous NCAA Regional appearances (1998-99-2000-01-03-04) - and also ties the fourth-best round in Mizzou history overall. Thursday's round gives this year's team six of the top eight team rounds in school history.
MU and the Lobos are two strokes ahead of fourth-place Texas A&M; the top eight teams - as well as the top two individuals not among those eight squads - following Saturday's final round will advance to the NCAA Division I Women's Golf National Championship, May 18-21, in Sunriver, Ore.
Missouri was in the first group of teams to trek the 6,328-yard, par-72 layout this morning after the start of play was delayed an hour until 8:30 a.m. because of fog, which continued through MU's front nine.
Senior Maria Ohlsson (Vetlanda, Sweden) leads the Tiger contingent after firing a 1-under 71 to stand in a tie for fourth place. Ohlsson bogeyed the first hole, and had back-to-back bogeys on 13 and 14, yet rallied for birdies on 2, 9, 10 and 15. She was one of only seven golfers to birdie the par-3 10th on Thursday, and one of just four to birdie the par-4 15th. Ohlsson's round is one stroke off her season-best opening round, set in September here at the Jeannine McHaney Invitational.
Junior Denise Knaebel (Moberly, Mo.) started out hot, notching birdies on the first and fourth holes to go out in 34. Bogeys on 10 and 14 brought her back to even before a birdie-bogey finish to her even-par round of 72 - her best opening round of the season - left her tied for eighth.
Junior Kelli Strubinger (St. Charles, Mo.) and freshman Maddie Augustsson (Solvesborg, Sweden) are both tied for 27th following rounds of 2-over 74. Augustsson rallied from three bogeys in her first seven holes to par 10 of the last 11 holes, including the entire back nine, in equaling her best opening round of the season. The other hole in the stretch was a birdie-4 on the ninth. Strubinger balanced birdies on the 11th and 18th holes with four bogeys in her round.
Senior Mindy Bullard (Warrensburg, Mo.) closed the Missouri quintet with a 4-over 76 to stand in a tie for 50th place, putting all five of Mizzou's players in the top half of the 107-player field. Bullard's round matched the best dropped score - only the best four of a team's five rounds are used to calculate a team's daily total - of any school on Thursday.
"We played well today, I was pretty pleased," Head Coach Stephanie Cooper said. "We made a lot of birdies, and we didn't have any double-bogeys for the first time in a long time. It started yesterday -- we had a really good practice round yesterday, and I told the team on the way down that they needed to refuse to make anything more than a bogey." Missouri was one of only three schools to not register a double-bogey or worse on Thursday, joining fifth-place Auburn and eighth-place Tulsa.
"It was huge for Maria and Denise to have a good start. I liked the way we worked today; we had a calm about us, which was nice. Maddie, Kelli, even Mindy - everyone played really consistent today. For us, we've had way too many big numbers. You can make double- or triple-bogey pretty quickly if you make a bad decision on your approach, but we were on the correct side of the hole most of time today. That's huge on this golf course."
The practice round was played in cold and rainy conditions, with temperatures in the high 40's and winds calm - nothing like Friday's forecast for upper 70's and the famous west-Texas winds. Mizzou's experience on this course in last September's Jeannine McHaney Invitational will come in handy this week. "The conditions change so much from day to day, so a shot that you hit with one club one day may be completely different the next. Being familiar with the course in that respect will be helpful," Cooper said.
Auburn's Diana Ramage leads the individual competition after carding a 4-under 68. Lisa Ferrero of Texas and Christa Spedding of Texas A&M are two strokes back, with Ohlsson and three others three back.
Mizzou will again be paired with Arkansas (currently in 12th place at 12-over) and Michigan (T-13th, +13) for the second round, which for those three teams will begin Friday at 11:50 a.m. from the 10th tee.
MIZZOU WOMEN'S GOLF
at the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships Central Regional - Lubbock, Texas
The Rawls Course - 6,328 yards / par 72
TEAM STANDINGS
(Through 18 of 54 holes)
Pl. Team Par 1st Total 1. Texas +2 290 290 2. Missouri +3 291 291 New Mexico +3 291 291 4. Texas A&M +5 293 293 5. Auburn +6 294 294 6. Purdue +7 295 295 7. Arizona State +8 296 296 8. Louisiana State +10 298 298 Tulsa +10 298 298 10. TCU +11 299 299 Michigan State +11 299 299 12. Arkansas +12 300 300 13. Michigan +13 301 301 Texas Tech +13 301 301 15. Baylor +14 302 302 Kent State +14 302 302 Wake Forest +14 302 302 18. Notre Dame +18 306 306 19. SMU +22 310 310 20. South Florida +26 314 314 21. Long Island +61 349 349
INDIVIDUAL STANDINGS
(top 15 plus other MU finishers)
Pl. Player (TM) Par 1st Total 1. Diana Ramage (AUB) -4 68 68 2. Lisa Ferrero (UT) -2 70 70 C. Spedding (TAMU) -2 70 70 4. Maria Ohlsson (MU) -1 71 71 C. Fernandez (UNM) -1 71 71 W. Frykman (PUR) -1 71 71 O. S'abanphot (PUR) -1 71 71 8. Denise Knaebel (MU) E 72 72 Sara Brown (MSU) E 72 72 Kailin Downs (UNM) E 72 72 Alissa Kuczka (Ariz. St.) E 72 72 Courtney Mahon (ARK) E 72 72 Ashley Rollins (UNM) E 72 72 Brooke Shelton (LSU) E 72 72 Louise Stahle (Ariz. St.) E 72 72 Perry Swenson (UT) E 72 72 T27. M. Augustsson (MU) +2 74 74 Kelli Strubinger (MU) +2 74 74 T50. Mindy Bullard (MU) +4 76 76