Kentucky Women’s Golf Wraps up Stay at SEC Championship
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Kentucky women’s golf team’s stay at the Southeastern Conference Championship ended Friday with a 14th-place finish. The top eight teams from the stroke-play portion of the event qualified for the weekend of match play.
The Wildcats ended the three rounds of stroke play at 46-over par. UK carded a 307 in Friday’s wet and chilly third round at the Greystone Golf & Country Club (par 72, 6,253 yards) in Birmingham, Alabama.
Junior Sarah Shipley was UK’s top finisher with a score of 5-over par. She tied for 21st after a solid 73 through difficult conditions Friday. It’s the second straight seasons she’s finished in the top 25 of the league tournament.
“Very disappointed in our three days here in Birmingham,” said UK assistant coach Brian May, who continued to fill in for head coach Golda Borst (maternity leave). “We were not able to capitalize on a good week practice leading up to this event. Our struggles on the greens continued and we had too many big numbers this week. We needed our best golf to compete in this event and unfortunately we just didn’t have it.”
Shipley’s performance Friday was on par with the way she usually trends this time of the year. Like last season, she played her best golf in the spring when the stakes were at their highest.
After tying for 26th at last week’s Clemson Invitational at Lake Keowee – a finish that would have been even better had her birdie-filled third round not been washed out by inclement weather – all three of her rounds this week were 75 or better.
She finished among the top finishers in what’s arguably the best conference tournament in collegiate golf. This week’s field featured 10 teams ranked in the top 50 of the latest GolfStat rankings, five in the top 25 and two in the top 10. That included a handful of top-50 players.
Shipley placed among them with three birdies in the third round. Among the highlights was a 30-foot putt she drained from the other side of the green on No. 16, and she nearly holed her second shot on the par-4 third hole, coming within inches of an eagle.
Shipley’s ascension of 14 spots was the second-largest climb Friday.
After a 1-undear-par 71 in Thursday’s round, senior Leonie Bettel couldn’t sustain the momentum and carded an 84 in the final round, only her second score in the 80s all season. The 2018-19 three-time champion tied for 52nd, just her third tournament this season outside the top 20, with a score of 13-over par.
Freshman Casey Ott had her best round of the week with a 3-over-par 75 in the third round. She posted a team-best four birdies Friday and tied for 57th at 15-over par overall.
Sophomore Rikke Svejgård Nielsen tied for 61st at 17-over par and senior Claire Carlin tied for 67th at 22-over par.
Ott, Svejgård Nielsen and Carlin were all playing in their first career SEC Championship this week.
No. 12 Florida was the only team to finish in red numbers and won the stroke-play portion of the event at 1-under par. The Gators will be the top seed in the eight-team match play that begins Saturday morning. Arkansas’ Maria Fassi charged from behind Friday to win individual medalist honors at 6-under par.
Now Kentucky will await its NCAA postseason fate and hope to extend the career of the seniors. The NCAA regional field will be announced Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. on the Golf Channel. Entering the week ranked No. 61, UK is on the bubble as it tries to make its seventh postseason appearance in nine seasons under Borst.
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.
