Indiana women’s golf finished play in the Briar’s Creek Invitational on Tuesday, placing 17th to finish in last place in the field. The Hoosiers collectively scored a 913, 49 over-par in 54 holes of play.
Unlike last weekend’s performance at the VyStar Gators Invitational, Indiana started out strong in the first round Monday, posting a collective score of 299, 11-over par. At the time, Indiana stood at 10th place and was only six strokes behind third place.
However, the team’s play went downhill after the first round. Indiana’s second round score was 309, 21-over par. This effectively bumped the team down to a tie for 16th place through two rounds. The end of the second round was suspended Monday evening due to darkness and resumed Tuesday morning before round three began.
In the third and final round, the Hoosiers put up a score of 305, 17-over par. They finished in 17th place, just two strokes behind 16th-place Old Dominion University.
Freshman Aine Donegan was the top scorer for Indiana, tying for 18th place with a score of 220, 4-over par. Donegan has been the top scorer for Indiana in every tournament this season.
Indiana’s second-best player of the weekend was freshman Margaret Fernandez. Fernandez tied for 70th overall scoring a 232, 16-over par.
Junior Valerie Clany finished one stroke behind Fernandez and scored a 233, 17-over par. Clancy placed 76th overall.
Seniors Alexis Miestowski and Mary Parsons rounded out the scoring for Indiana. Miestowski tied for 82nd place, scoring a 235, 19-over par, and Parsons tied for 88th place scoring a 237, 21-over par.
Par-5 holes again proved to be Indiana’s downfall. The team averaged 5.28 strokes on par 5s and scored 17-over par on the holes. Indiana’s marks on par-5 holes were the last in the field by a large margin. Second-to-last Nebraska averaged 5.12 strokes and scored 7-over par on par 5s.
Similarly, the Hoosiers struggled to score birdies, making it much more difficult to keep up with the field. The Hoosiers’ 20 birdies were second-to-last, only one ahead of Wisconsin, which finished with 19 birdies.
Parsons knocked in an eagle during the Invitational, just one of seven players to do so in the tournament. It was her first eagle of the year, and Indiana’s first eagle in tournament play this season.
Campbell University crushed the competition to run away with the title, scoring a collective 853, 11-under par to win by 11 strokes. Michigan finished second, scoring an 864 even-par as the only team besides Campbell to shoot even-par or better.
Indiana has two tournaments remaining in the regular season before postseason play. Indiana is scheduled to travel to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to participate in the Chattanooga Classic from March 27-29.
