Both the men’s and women’s golf teams continued their great start in 2014 over the break. The women finished tied for eighth at the 3M Lady Jaguar Intercollegiate in Augusta, Ga., while the men finished tied for fifth at the Seminole Intercollegiate in Tallahassee, Fla.
Both teams had to play 36 holes on Saturday, March 15, as inclement weather forced officials at both tournaments to push the final round of both events up a day.
A pair of freshmen who are having very good starts to their Trojan careers led the teams. Fátima Fernández Cano finished tied for sixth on the women’s side and Jared Bettcher shot two 1-under rounds of 71 on Saturday to finish tied for 12th place for the men.
The women faced a tough field of competitors at the 3M Jaguar Lady Intercollegiate. The field included five teams ranked in the top 50 in the country. The course also added a challenge and high scores were prevalent throughout the tournament.
The Trojans persevered and finished tied with No. 61 Purdue in eighth place. The team was only eight strokes out of the top five and finished above three teams ranked above them in the national rankings.
Freshman Fátima Fernández Cano had her fourth top 10 finish this season and junior Taylor McGraw seventeenth place tie means she has finished in the top 20 of every 2014 tournament for the Trojans.
The Trojans women will play in the John Kirk Lady Panther Invitational in Stockbridge, Ga., March 30-April 1.
The men had a rough start to the tournament shooting 302 on the first day and were sitting in tenth place going into Saturday.
However the Trojans fought back and outplayed No. 12 Florida State and No. 29 South Florida to move all the way up to a tie for fifth in the tournament. The Trojans shot a combined 5-under Saturday, which was the best score of the day.
“We had a tough day yesterday, but the way our guys came out and played today showed them how good they can be,” head coach Matt Terry said. “We played 36 holes better than anyone else on the golf course today and there were five top 60 teams in the field. Our guys could have easily folded after the opening round, but they came back and fought hard and impressed a lot of people.”
Juniors Toliver Dozier and Jake Tucker tied for sixteenth place after starting the day in 34th and 54th place, respectively.
The men have finished every tournament of 2014 in the top five and have placed higher than several ranked teams at various tournaments. The next match for the men’s squad will be at the Old Waverly Collegiate Championship in West Point, Miss., on April 7-8.
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