Wildcats Off to Fast Start at Clover Cup in Arizona
MESA, Ariz. – The Kentucky women’s golf team has put itself behind the eight ball in recent spring tournaments and been forced to claw its way back into contention. The Wildcats have done an admirable job of coming back and have showed great resolve, but to truly compete for championships – as has been the goal all season long – they know they’re going to have to get off to better starts.
At the 2018 Clover Cup in Mesa, Arizona, Kentucky has done just that with one of its best starts of the season. UK raced out to an early lead behind a red-hot Leonie Bettel and sits in fourth place in the 16-team field after the opening 18 holes at the Longbow Golf Club. Bettel is in second place, two shots behind Nikolette Schroeder from Ohio State.
The Wildcats fired a first-round 293, 4-over par, and are just seven shots behind Ohio State. Bettel, a junior, came out swinging with two eagles on the front nine to ignite Kentucky to an early lead.
UK fell back to the field on Friday’s back nine, but with 36 holes to go and the recent trend of having to dig out of a hole, Kentucky has put itself in great position heading into the second round. All five Wildcats are in the top 50 of the individual standings, three are in the top 30 and two are in the top 15.
The 54-hole stroke-play tournament will continue Saturday and conclude Sunday. Teams are back on the course for the second round at 11 a.m. ET. UK will begin teeing off on hole No. 1 at 11:50 a.m. ET.
Live scoring will be available throughout the tournament at BirdieFire.com.
“We had a solid start to the tournament today,” UK women’s golf head coach Golda Borst said. “We felt like we had a good game plan for this course and the team has had a quiet confidence to them all week. Even though we had a better round today, we still left quite a few shots out there. We had several big numbers so we need to tighten that up and continue to stay aggressive and take advantage of the opportunities that we create.
“At the end of the day, we played really solid throughout the round. Leo’s 69 really helped us and I believe that this entire group is capable of going low out here.”
Bettel, who owns as much raw talent on the team as anyone, showed her potential early in Friday’s opening round. She opened with an eagle on the par-5 first, followed with a birdie on No. 4, and then, incredibly, carded another eagle on the front nine when she rolled one in on the par-5 ninth hole.
That nine-hole stretch moved her into first place at 5-under par. The more difficult back nine gave Bettel some problems and she dropped three shots on her first three holes after the turn, but the Austria native closed her round with a birdie to get back to 3-under par.
Bettel’s opening-round 69 is her second-best score of the season, behind only a career-best 65 at the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship.
But Bettel wasn’t the only Wildcat to shine on this day. Not far behind Bettel is senior Ale Walker, who is back on the course for the first time since withdrawing from the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational in October. Reminding the Wildcats just how much they missed her presence, Walker returned with a 1-over-par 73 and showed promise she could go lower in the remaining two rounds.
Like Bettel, she started off hot. The Paintsville, Kentucky, posted three birdies on her opening six holes to move near the top of the leaderboard, where she would stay for the rest of the day. She had a rough stretch to start the back nine but settled down with five pars to close the first round. She’s tied for 13th at 1-over par.
Had it not been for two holes – a triple bogey on No. 4 and a double bogey on No. 10 – senior Isabelle Johansson would likely find herself right up there with Bettel and Walker. Those were the only two blemishes on a scorecard that featured two birdies on the first two holes and pars everywhere else.
In a tie for 29th at 3-over par, Johansson, who leads UK in scoring average this spring, is in typical position to strike and move up the leaderboard.
Sophomore Sarah Shipley, the only underclassmen in the lineup this weekend, rounded out the team scoring on day one with a 4-over-par 76. She’s tied for 38th.
Senior Grace Rose had a rare off day with a 5-over 77. It’s just the second time in 20 rounds this season UK hasn’t used her score for the team total.
This week’s 16-team field, in addition to UK, features host Notre Dame, Arizona State, Cincinnati, Delaware, FIU, IUPUI, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oklahoma, TCU, Texas State, Toledo, UNC Charlotte and UNC Greensboro. Four of those teams are ranked in the top 50 and two – No. 8 Arizona State and No. 15 Oklahoma – are in the top 15.
Longbow Golf Club, which opened in 1997 and was redesigned in 2003, is playing at 6,184 yards, a par 72.
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.
