MIAMI LAKES, Fla. ? Junior Mallory Blackwelder notched the best finish of her career at Kentucky when she took second at the Qdoba Invitational to pace the UK women?s golf team to a seventh place finish in the first tournament of the spring slate at Don Shula?s Golf Resort Tuesday.
Blackwelder scored a one-over-par 73 in the final day of action, coming into the clubhouse with a 220 score and tied with two other players: Erica Moston (San Jose St.) and Jessica Steward (Miami). Team winner East Carolina was paced by the individual winner, Abby Bools who led the field with an overall two-over par. Blackwelder was just two shots shy of Bools? score.
As a team, UK finished in seventh in its first action of the spring season. Kentucky fired a 305 in the final round, the best score of the tournament for the team. Kansas edged the Wildcats by just a stroke for sixth place. The Jayhawks combined for a 921 score, with UK finishing at 922. Kentucky beat out fellow SEC team Mississippi State by nine strokes. The Bulldogs carded a 931 and took eighth.
?The team hit the ball pretty well this week,? said Head Coach Myra Blackwelder. ?We need to continue to work on getting the rust off of our short games.?
Freshman Louise Ljungstedt carded the first top-20 finish of her young career as she rounded out an 18th place showing with a final day score of 77. Senior Elizabeth Dotson also scored a 77 in round three, and finished tied for 44th. Sophomore Erica Still placed 47th overall and had the best round of her tournament, scoring 78 in the final 18 holes of play. Senior Beth Felts rounded out the team scoring with a final place of 54th.
Sophomore Kristen Vincent, playing as an individual, fired a 79 in the final round and placed tied for 44th overall on the individual leaderboard.
Blackwelder has now finished in the top-10 individually in three tournaments in her first season with the Wildcats. Her second place finish was the best individual performance since Still tied for second at the Peggy Kirk Bell Invitational in March.
?Mallory had another solid tournament,? Blackwelder said. ?She is looking forward to playing in Gainesville next week.?
Kentucky is back in action SunTrust Lady Gator Invitational, hosted by the University of Florida Feb. 22-24.
