Women's Golf | 10/16/2018 5:28:00 PM
SANDESTIN, Fla. Methodist put a pair of women in the top 25 of the final individual leaderboard, and maintained their fifth-place spot on the team leaderboard after Tuesday's final round of the Golfweek D-III Fall Invite.
Entering the third and final day of the three-day tournament, the Monarchs began Tuesday in fifth place.
The Invite was comprised of 18 teams, eleven of which are ranked within the top 25 of the most recent Women's Golf Coaches Association poll.
JUST THE FACTS
Event: Golfweek D-III Fall Invite
Location: Baytowne Golf Club (5,804 yards, par 72); Sandestin, Florida
Team leaders: 1 – Rhodes College (317-300-303—920, 56-over par); 2 – Carnegie Mellon University (319-310-309—938, +74); 3 – WashU(Mo.) (321-316-302—939, +75)
Methodist: T5 – 313-323-318—954, +90
Individual leaders: 1 – Tabatha Diehl, Rhodes (76-75-72—223, +7); T2 – Erica Whitehouse, Christopher Newport University (75-75-75—225, +9); T2 – Samantha Haubenstock, WashU (74-77-74—225, +9)
Methodist leader: T10 –
Jillian Drinkard (73-81-78—232, +16)
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The 12th-ranked Monarchs started on the front nine and once again put together a nice opening half, combining for an 11-over par total.
- The back half of the course continued to play tough, however, as the Methodist group played the final nine holes in 19-over.
- Drinkard followed up first and second-round play by rolling in another large number of par putts. With 12 in Tuesday's round she pushed her tournament total to 35, third most of the 93 golfers in the tournament.
- One bogey and a trio of doubles elevated her score Tuesday, but she also trimmed three strokes from her Monday round.
- Also cracking the top 25 was Morgan Bowen (75-84-80—239, +23) who, like Drinkard, cut strokes from Monday's scorecard. Bowen scrambled all day in Round 3, collecting six pars, three birdies, seven bogeys and a pair of doubles. Her 6-over front nine improved to a more desirable 2-over on the back to help Bowen finish the tournament tied for 24th place.
- Playing a mostly consistent three rounds at Baytowne was Paige Church (81-79-80—240, +24), who ended the tournament tied for 30th, one stroke back of Bowen. Church recorded 29 pars overall, the ninth most of the large field.
- With 30 successful par putts, Peyton Durham (84-80-83—247, +31) ended the tournament with the eighth most pars. Tuesday was right on her tournament average as she knocked down 10. Durham finished tied for 56th.
- Playing her best round of the tournament on Tuesday was Sarah Sontowski (86-83-80—249, +33), who finished in a tie for 62nd. She began the day with birdie at No. 1 and a par at the second. Her back nine closed with five consecutive pars, but a pair of early doubles prevented Sontowski from claiming her best nine holes of the tournament.
INVITE NOTES
- Methodist averaged a score of 3.31 on the par 3s, the second-best mark of the 18 teams.
- Its 140 pars were fourth most over the week.
- Team champion Rhodes is ranked sixth in the WGCA poll, Carnegie Mellon is 16th and WashU, the defending Fall Invite champion, is No. 1.
- Oglethorpe (Ga.) University tied Methodist for fifth place, and was the highest unranked finisher.
NEXT UP
The Monarchs closed up the fall portion of the schedule with the Golfweek Invite. They next take to the course for competition sake on March 1-2 at the Calloway Gardens (Ga.) Collegiate Invitational.
