Women’s Golf NCAA Regional Day 1

When the final putt fell on the first day of the NCAA Regional Champion KU found itself still in contention to advance to the NCAA Championship. The magic number is 5. The top 5 teams in the region advance to the Championship tournament and KU finds itself 5 shots behind the 5th place team.

How did KU keep themselves in contention on day 1?

On the day KU was led by Sophomore Johanna Ebner from Villach, Austria, playing as KU’s #5. On the front side, Johanna was +2. On the first six holes, she had shot par on each hole. On the par 5 7th hole she shot a 6, on the par 3 8th she shot a 5, and on the par 4 9th hole she shot a 3. On the back side, Johanna’s consistency returned when she parred the first 4 holes before taking a 5 on the par 4 14th hole. After another par on the par 4 15th, Johanna got hot, birdieing the final three holes to finish the back side at -2, finishing even for the day, and tied for 13th overall.

One stoke behind Johanna was teammate Abby Glynn, a senior from Topeka and playing as KU’s #4, at +1. After 16 holes Abby was also even on the day, but a double bogey 7 on the par 5 17th pushed her to +2. She got one stroke back on the 18th when she recorded a 4 on the second of 2 consecutive par 5s. Abby finds herself tied for 20th after day 1.

The other 3 Jayhawks struggled some. Senior Esme Hamilton from Nottingham, England playing as the team’s #1 was +6 on the day. Sophomore Lauren Clark from Orlando, playing as the team’s #2, was also +6. Both are tied for 48th place. The final member of the team, Sophomore Jordan Rothman from Durbanville, South Africa playing as the team’s #3, was +5 on the day and tied for 43rd place.

The full team leaderboard after the first round was:

1. Georgia 279 -9

2. Ohio State 288 E

3. South Carolina 289 +1

T4. San Jose State 295 +7

T4. Maryland 295 +7

T6. Ole Miss 297 +9

T6. Furman 297 +9

T8. Kansas 300 +12

T8. Kent State 300 +12

10. Augusta 301 +13

11. College of Charleston 309 +21

12. Sacred Heart Univ. 312 +24