UK Women’s Golf Makes Biggest Climb of the Day at Liz Murphey
ATHENS, Ga. – On moving day at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic, the Kentucky women’s golf team made the biggest move of them all.
Fueled by Rikke Svejgård Nielsen’s 1-under-par 71, the Wildcats climbed eight spots and into seventh place following the second round of play at the UGA Golf Course (par 72, 6,287 yards) in Athens, Georgia.
UK carded an 8-over-par 296, the fourth-best second-round score in the 18-team field, to put itself in contention for possibly its best finish of the season. The Wildcats are currently ahead of five top-25 teams and the only schools in front of them are all ranked top 15 nationally.
Just two shots separate Kentucky form fifth place and the Wildcats are only six shots behind No. 4 LSU.
No. 3 South Carolina leads the pack at 4-over par. The Tigers’ Ingrid Lindblad, the No. 1 player in the country, continues to lead the 90-player field at 5-under par thanks to her tournament-record 8-under-par performance on Friday.
The Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic concludes Sunday at 8:35 a.m. with the final 18 holes. UK will be among the first teams to tee off. Live scoring will continue to be available at Golfstat.com.
“Our team fought so hard today,” UK head coach Golda Borst said. “They did everything they could to grind out every last bit of this round. We didn’t get off to the best start, but they just kept working at it and played with a good attitude throughout the day. I’m so proud of them.”
Borst was particularly proud of the mental toughness of the Wildcats, who withstood blustery conditions to move past some of the country’s top teams. The only schools that shot better than Kentucky on Saturday – No. 3 South Carolina, No. 15 Arkansas and No. 6 Ole Miss – are 1-2-3 on the overall leaderboard.
Svejgård Nielsen was particularly impressive in the wind as one of just five players in the field in red numbers Saturday.
The senior is among the most experienced players on Kentucky’s roster and entered this season with seven career top-20 finishes. However, Svejgård Nielsen has been unable to find any rhythm in 2020-21, and until Saturday, she had just one round of even par or better.
On Saturday, Svejgård Nielsen carded her lowest score of the season to jump 44 spots. How she got there was even more remarkable.
Svejgård Nielsen opened the day on the back nine with a double bogey and a bogey. At 10-over par for the tournament at that point, things appeared dire for the senior.
But Svejgård Nielsen went to work. She birdied the par-5 12th for her first birdie of the weekend, followed a bogey on No. 16 with a birdie on No. 17, and then eagled the par-5 18th to get her back to even par on the day.
Svejgård Nielsen’s second nine was clean. She posted six straight pars before a birdie on No. 7, and then two more birdies reeled in her first under-par round of the season. She is tied for 30th overall at 6-over par.
Still lurking near the top of the individual leaderboard is freshman Laney Frye at 1-over par. After opening the tournament with a 2-under-70, Frye posted a 75 in the second round and is tied for eighth place, six shots back of the lead.
Frye exhibited similar resolve as Svejgård Nielsen. After going 5-over par in her 10 first holes Saturday, Kentucky’s top performer in 2020-21 battled back with two birdies and six pars to close the round and stay in contention.
Sophomore Jensen Castle is the third Wildcat in the top 30 through two rounds. She recorded a 75 on Saturday and is tied for 27th at 5-over par overall. Castle will be seeking her third top-20 showing in the last four events on Sunday.
Sophomore Marissa Wenzler was the third UK player to fire a 75 in the second round. Like many of her teammates, she got off to a rough start by going 4-over par through 10 holes, but Wenzler finished strong with seven pars and a birdie. After shaving off four shots from her Friday score, she is tied for 51st at 10-over par overall.
Sophomore María Villanueva Aperribay was not able to climb out of her early hole and finished with an 83 on Saturday. At 18-over par for the tournament, she is tied for 83rd.
This is the second time UK has competed in Georgia’s home tournament, the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic. The Bulldogs hosted a fall version of the tournament to make up for last spring’s event, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
All 14 SEC teams are competing this week in Athens in addition to College of Charleston, Louisville, Southern California and Georgia’s “B” team. Thirteen of the 18 teams are ranked in the Golfstat top 50, nine are in the top 25 and four are in the top 10.
UK is coming off at 15th-place finish at the Gamecock Intercollegiate to start March. This Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic marks the fourth tournament of the spring and the seventh overall in the 2020-21 Kentucky season. The Wildcats will wrap up the regular season at the LSU Tiger Golf Classic to start April before shifting their attention to the postseason.
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.
