Kiawah Island, SC – Entering Tuesday's final round of play in the Edwin Watts/Kiawah Island Spring Classic, the Stetson Hatters' women's golf team had their sights on moving up into position to earn a top 10 finish in the 41-team event.
Instead, the Hatters failed to take advantage of near perfect playing conditions, and slid back to finish 19th overall.
Coastal Carolina was able to take advantage of the improved conditions, posting a tournament low team score of 282 to take a comfortable eight-shot victory over Chattanooga. The host team from the College of Charleston finished third.
“Today was the first perfect day to play that we had,” Hatters coach Floyd Kerr said. “The golf course was in great shape and a lot of teams played better than they did the first two days. We played about the same as we did before, so we didn't take advantage of having a good day to play.”
Stetson posted a 308 in the final round which was the highest score among the top 25 teams in the field on the final day. Combined with scores of 307 and 305 the first two days, left the Hatters with a 56-over par score of 920. Stetson finished one shot behind Marshall and two behind Jacksonville State.
“Our play today was about like Dwight Howard's free throw percentage, about 45 percent,” Kerr said. “We were very benevolent to the golf course. We didn't take anything from the course, but we gave a lot. We had a lot of unforced bogeys.”
Junior Giulia Vandenberg was the top finisher for the Hatters with a tie for 26th overall after a final round score of 76.
“Giulia had an uncharacteristic round, getting off to a bad start with two double-bogeys in the first five holes,” Kerr said. “It was an uphill battle after that.”
The bright spot for the Hatters on Tuesday was the play of sophomore Carolin Schart, who posted a two-over par 74 after having consecutive rounds in the 80s the first two days.
“Carolin pulled her game back together and played much better today, and that was good to see,” Kerr said. “We were able to have four counting scores in the 70s today, but none of them was able to go very low.”
Junior Kristine Odaiyar and sophomore Paige Kemp both finished with rounds of 79 while sophomore Eilidh Watson had an 82.
Troy's Fatima Cano and Chattanooga's Emily McLennan, who battled at the top of the leaderboard throughout the tournament, finished tied for medalist honors. Both finished with six-under par scores of 210 for the event. Only five players, of the 215 in the field, finished with scores under par.
The Hatters will return to action this weekend when they travel to Hattiesburg, Miss., to compete in the Golden Eagle Invitational. The event, which will be played at the Hattiesburg Country Club, will include 36 holes of competition next Monday with a final 18 holes scheduled for Tuesday.
“The girls are disappointed that they didn't play better in this tournament, but it is early in the spring and we will continue to work to play better,” Kerr said. “We will work on some things in practice before we leave on Saturday for Southern Miss.”
