Hack’s Career Week Leads Cats to 10th-Place Finish at LSU Classic

BATON ROUGE, La. – Tournament by tournament, round by round, swing by swing, freshman Anna Hack continues to get rapidly better. The latest example was this weekend’s Kentucky women’s golf tournament at the LSU Tiger Golf Classic in Baton Rouge, La. – specifically Tuesday’s final round.

Hack fired a third-round 74 to lead the Wildcats on Tuesday and finish in the top 15 for the first time in her career. With a total score of 12-over-par 228, just one off her career-best 54-hole score, Hack finished in a tie for 14th place. Her previous best in a tournament was a tie for 52nd two weeks ago at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate.

With Hack leading the final-day charge, UK finished in 10th in the 17-team field with a total score of 69-over par. The Wildcats, who were tied for the lead late in the first round, finished ahead of Southeastern Conference rivals Auburn and Ole Miss. 

“Unfortunately we had another rough day on the course today, but despite our struggles we fought our way to a top-10 finish and beat several solid teams,” head coach Golda Johansson Borst said. “We know we are moving in the right direction and we just have to keep our heads down and continue to trust in our process.” 

No. 3 Duke led wire to wire to win the 2016 LSU Tiger Golf Classic. The Blue Devils’ Celine Boutier ran away from the field with a score of 8-under par, 14 strokes better than anyone else in the field.

Hack was pretty consistent throughout Sunday. Starting on hole No. 7, the freshman from Paducah, Ky., recorded a birdie on No. 8 and a bogey on No. 9 before five straight pars. She finished off the back nine with a bit of a wild stretch (double bogey, birdie, bogey, bogey), before carding a birdie on No. 1 and finishing with five straight pars.

Hack was among the tournament leaders in pars this week and was 1-under par on par 3s, tied for the second-best score in the field.

Perhaps the most important development of the week for Hack was the continuation and the consistency of success. After starting her career with seven rounds of 80 or more in her first 11 rounds in college, she’s fired nine straight rounds in the 70s, the majority of which appear to be going lower and lower.

“I am very proud of Anna for her finish this week,” Borst said. “She played really steady for us all three days and kept her calm even when she faced adversity. Anna is learning to play on these tougher college courses and it’s good to know that we can count on her. Anna will only continue to improve and I’m glad to see her hard work in the offseason pay off.” 

Increasing her team-high top-50 finishes to five with this week’s 25th-place finish, sophomore Isabelle Johansson ended the week at 15-over par. She fired a final-day 78.

Senior Cylia Damera, who was in a tie for fifth after the first day, ended the tournament at 21-over par and in a tie for 51st. Junior Jordan Chael placed in a tie 65th for the week. Sophomore Grace tied for 83rd at 32-over par.

This week’s tournament was held at the University Club in Baton Rouge. Playing as 6,237 yards and par 72, the course was recently redesigned and renovated under the guidance of PGA Tour pro David Tom and renowned golf course architect Jim Lipe. The challenging layout features wide fairways bordered by pine hammocks and native grasses, in addition to 2,000 feet of beautiful bulkhead.

In addition to four top-25 team and nine top-50 teams, this week’s field featured seven SEC teams.

Kentucky has less than a two-week break before competing in the Bryan National Collegiate in Browns Summit, N.C., April 1-3. The Bryan will mark the final tournament of the season for the Wildcats before postseason play at the SEC Championship.