Bettel Named SEC Women’s Co-Player of the Week
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky senior women’s golfer Leonie Bettel added another honor to an already decorated season by winning Southeastern Conference Co-Women’s Golfer of the Week on Wednesday. She shared the honors with Courtney Dow from Texas A&M.
It’s the first time a Wildcat has won the award since 2014 and just the fourth all-time.
Bettel earned the honor after winning her third championship of the season last week at the Clover Cup in Mesa, Arizona. The senior from Austria sunk a clutch birdie putt on her 72nd and final hole Sunday to tie three other competitors for first place.
With the victory, Bettel moved within one win of Kate Rogerson (1987-88) for the most tournament titles in single-season history. Bettel won the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship and Bettie Lou Evans Invitational in back-to-back tournaments in the fall.
Bettel led for much of the tournament last weekend. She got as low as 5-under par and led by as many as five shots against a 90-player field that featured the No. 1 team in the country, Southern California.
She carried a three-shot lead into the final round but faced some major adversity when she logged a bogey on No. 2 and a triple bogey on No. 5. Not only was Bettel’s cushion gone at that point, so was her lead.
Bettel fell behind by as many as two shots in the final round but fought her way back. She birdied holes 7 and 9 to end the front nine and then found her groove on the back nine to stay just behind the leaders. She had about a five-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to tie for the lead, which she made for championship No. 3 of the season.
The ANNIKA Award candidate is averaging 72.2 strokes per 18-hole round, which would be a single-season school record if the season ended today. Her 11 rounds of par or better are already the second most in school history, just one behind Isabelle Johansson’s 2016-17 record. With the three championships leading the way, she has a team-best five top-10 showings and has finished in the top 20 in all but one – six of seven – of UK’s tournaments this season.
The last UK player to win SEC Women’s Golfer of the Week was Cylia Damerau in February 2014. Ashleigh Albrecht (February 2011) and Beth Felts (March 2006) have also won the award.
It’s the second SEC weekly honor for the Wildcats this season. Casey Ott, who leads Kentucky in stroke average this spring, won SEC Freshman Golfer of the Week at the end of February.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow the team on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
