Women's Golf Closes Strong on Day One at SEC Championship
4/17/2019 3:50:00 PM | Women's Golf
Tigers Collect Five Birdies Down the Stretch and are Tied for 10th Place
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. – A strong finish, including five birdies in the final five holes, propelled the Mizzou Women's Golf Team up the leaderboard in day one of the SEC Championships, held April 17-21 at Greystone Golf & Country Club in Birmingham, Ala.
The closing red numbers included two each down the stretch by senior Emma Allen (Southampton, England) and junior Jessica Yuen (Bolingbrook, Ill.), with one for good measure by senior Amanda Kim (O'Fallon, Mo.). The birdie barrage moved the team into a tie for 10th place with a team score of 299. Stroke play will continue with rounds two and three Thursday and Friday, respectively, with the top eight teams advancing to match play format.
Seven of the 10 birdies carded by the Tigers (who teed off on hole No. 10) on Wednesday came on their second nine holes, including three in all by Yuen, two from Allen, and one each from Kim and freshman Keagan Dunn (Braselton, Ga.). After day one, Mizzou is just three shots out of eighth place, currently held by Vanderbilt (296), and one back of ninth-place Ole Miss (298). Mizzou's team round today was five shots better than the team's opening round a year ago at the same course, when they eventually finished eighth in stroke play and advanced to match play.
"It was a pretty good second nine for us today," said Head Coach Stephanie Priesmeyer. "Emma was able to string some birdies together and Jess had a nice one on No. 3, and her putt on No. 9 that went down for birdie was pretty sweet. Amanda had a huge birdie on her final hole too, so we had a lot of positives out there," she said.
"Tomorrow, we have to do a better job of hitting fairways," said Priesmeyer. "We missed too many today, and too often we were in a tough bunker or in a tree line and that cost us some bogeys. We will be teeing off early in the morning, so that will be good to get right back out there and hopefully we can beat the weather that they're predicting," she said.
Allen and Yuen stand tied for 19th individually with identical Wednesday rounds of one-over par 73. Allen had back-to-back birdies on holes No. 5 and 6, as she finished the front nine at one-under 35. Yuen, whose 73 was the best opening round of the spring for her, birdies holes No. 3, 5 and 9 on her way to a 36 on the front. Kim had two birdies in all, with one on each side, including the ninth hole to close her day with momentum. She finished the day in a tie for 46th individually.
Dunn started her first-ever SEC Championship with a birdie on her first hole, the par-4 10th. She got to two-under par with another birdie on 16, and later added a third on No. 3. Her five-over 77 total left her tied for 54th after day one.
Senior Cayce Hendrickson (Benton, Ky.) stands tied for 60th after opening-round 78. She was unable to record a red number Wednesday, but Hendrickson also finished on a high note, as she was just one over (37) on the front nine, which included eight pars and just one bogey.
Live scoring for the event can be found online at www.golfstat.com, or at www.secsports.com.
For all the latest on Mizzou Women's Golf, stay tuned to www.MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter (@MUWomensGolf) and on Facebook at MizzouWomensGolf.
Players Mentioned
