Wildcats Save Their Best for Last (Round) at PING ASU Invitational
Share
TEMPE, Ariz. – The more the Kentucky women’s golf team plays a course, the better it seems to get. Or so recent results say.
For the third straight tournament, the Wildcats saved their best for the last round, firing a weekend-best 292 on Sunday to move up the leaderboard at the PING ASU Invitational. With a 4-over-par day, UK finished at 22-over par overall for the 54-hole tournament and in ninth place.
Led by junior Isabelle Johansson, who notched her team-leading sixth top-20 finish of the season, Kentucky moved past three teams in the third round, an important final-day surge for a team that’s in search of an NCAA regional bid just a few weeks down the road. The Wildcats, ranked No. 53 by Golfstat heading into this weekend, are certainly in the conversation for a berth.
“We finished on a better note today and played to a level that we are capable of playing,” head coach Golda Johansson Borst said. “Starting on 10 definitely helped us since we knew the team was more confident on the front 9 and we knew there would be some birdies to be made.
“Overall the team stayed tough and played with a great deal of conviction today. Grace (Rose) was very steady for us all day and just kept rolling in putts. Bella got off to a tough start but dug in and went on a birdie chase. Sarah (Shipley) and Josephine (Chang) showed a lot of toughness throughout their entire rounds and just kept bouncing back with birdies, which was great to see.”
Arizona State, host of the tournament and the No. 5 team in the country, ran away from the field Sunday with an impressive round of 273 (15-under par) Sunday. The Sun Devils finished at 25-under par, 20 shots clear of second place.
Arizona State’s Roberta Lita slid past teammate and first- and second-round leader Monica Vaughn for the individual title at 10-under par.
UK posted its best round since shooting a 291 in the second round of the UCF Challenge on Feb. 6. It was the seventh-best round in a 14-team field that features eight teams ranked in the top 50 and three in the top 25.
Johansson, as she’s done so many times in her career, was the driving force behind Kentucky’s solid Sunday. The junior from Sala, Sweden, posted a 2-under 70 for the second day in a row, but her round on Sunday was more impressive than the final scoreboard may have indicated.
The primary reason: resiliency.
After shedding Friday’s 77 and moving up nearly 30 spots Saturday, Johansson found herself moving in the wrong direction Sunday when she bogeyed her first three holes. Johansson settled down after that with four straight pars before a birdie on No. 17 (she started Sunday on the back nine) began a birdie bonanza.
Johansson proceeded by making birdie on three straight holes on the front nine, four in five holes and five in seven holes. When it was all said and done, Johansson carded a 31 on her final nine holes of the tournament, a 70 for the day and a 1-over-par total for the weekend.
It was Johansson’s team-leading 11th round of par or better as she finished in a tie for 17th.
Junior Grace Rose had a nearly equalizing run of birdies to being her final round. She recorded four birdies in her first six holes Sunday, including three straight at one point.
Although she couldn’t sustain the hot start, she fired a 1-under 71 in the third round, her first round under par since the second day of the UCF Challenge on Feb. 6. At 5-over par, she tied for 29th, tied for her second-best finish in five tournaments this season.
Freshmen Sarah Shipley and Josephine Chang finished in the middle of the pack for the Wildcats after solid first rounds of the tournament. Shipley tied for 45th at 9-over par overall and Chang tied for 49th at 10-over par.
This week marked UK’s first appearance in the PING ASU Invitational in the Borst era.
It’s the 45th edition of the tournament but the first time the Wildcats have made an appearance during the Borst era. The Karsten Golf Course played at 6,337 yards this week, a par-72 layout.
Kentucky will take two weeks off before the all-important SEC Championship in Birmingham, Alabama.
“We have some things to work on for SEC Championship and we look forward to doing just that over the next week and a half,” Borst said.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow the team on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
