UK Women’s Golf Places Third in Strong Field at Liz Murphey
ATHENS, Ga. – The Kentucky women’s golf team finished off its best tournament of the 2020-21 season with the lowest final-round score in the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic field on Sunday.
UK placed third against formidable competition in Athens, Georgia, and finished just nine shots back of South Carolina – this weekend’s champion and the nation’s top-ranked team – to carry out the most complete performance of the season for the Wildcats.
Kentucky fired a 4-over-par 292 in the final round to move up four spots and finish at 26-over par overall.
Freshman Laney Frye tied for seventh for her second career top-10 showing, senior Rikke Svejgård Nielsen’s recorded her first top-20 performance of the season, and sophomore María Villanueva Aperribay tied the lowest round of the season by a Wildcat with a 69 on Sunday.
Everyone in the lineup played a part this weekend as Kentucky rallied from a 15th-place standing after Friday’s 14-over-par round. The Wildcats tied South Carolina for the lowest score over the final two days to make the impressive comeback in an 18-team field that featured nine top-25 teams and four top-10 squads (Golfstat rankings).
“I’m incredibly proud,” UK head coach Golda Borst said. “I don’t think I have words to describe it. We had a really good talk after the first round and they just have showed so much resiliency and fought so incredibly hard.”
The Gamecocks turned in a 17-over-par score to win the Liz Murphey. LSU’s Ingrid Lingbald, who entered the week as the nation’s top player, finished atop the individual leaderboard at 4-under par.
The Wildcats’ encouraging performance comes at the right time with the homestretch of the season now here. UK will play in the LSU Tiger Golf Classic on April 6-7 and postseason play begins a week later at the Southeastern Conference Championship in Hoover, Alabama.
Borst and her group leave Athens with a lot of confidence.
“I think it’s huge,” Borst said. “We scored well without having really our ‘A’ game, which is huge for their confidence. I think some of them are a little bit upset at how they finished today, but there are so many positives and we’ve just got to take a lot of confidence from it. We’re just excited.”
Frye was the top overall performer this weekend, the third time in seven events in 2020-21 she has led Kentucky. The seventh-place showing was one spot behind her career best, a sixth-place finish at the season-opening Blessings Collegiate Invitational. Frye’s 219, 3-over par, was also just two shots off her career low of 217, set last month at the Florida Gators Invitational.
On Sunday, Frye added another three birdies to her weekend total, finishing with a 74 because of a pair of bogeys and a triple bogey.
“Laney, I think, played steady all week,” Borst said. “Just a few bigger numbers here and there that hurt her, but she is maturing as a player overall and it’s great to see her be steady on the golf course and understand where she’s at and knowing that she wants to achieve great things. I think she’s growing a lot in that area.”
The round of the day for UK went to Villanueva Aperribay, who responded spectacularly to a rough two days to begin the Liz Murphey.
After an 83 in the second round, her biggest 18-hole number in her two-year college career, Villanueva Aperribay responded by tying the best round of her career with a 3-under-par 69.
Villanueva Aperribay carded five birdies Sunday and closed the tournament with a bang with an eagle on the par-5 18th. It was the second straight day a Wildcat birdied No. 17 and eagled No. 18 with Svejgård Nielsen doing it Sunday.
Although Villanueva Aperribay tied for 49th at 15-over par because of the first two rounds, her final-day score went a long way in helping the Wildcats secure the third-place finish.
“For María to step up today and shoot 69 today is huge,” Borst said. “She’s been very disappointed starting with two tough rounds, but we know her game is so close.”
Svejgård Nielsen appears to be regaining the form that saw her post seven top-20 finishes and three top-10 showings in her first two seasons at Kentucky. After carding a season-best 71 on Saturday, the senior followed with a 1-over-par in the second round.
Tied for 74th after the opening round, Svejgård Nielsen’s two-day comeback put her in a tie for 16th at weekend’s end, her first top-20 performance of the season. Her total score of 7-over par was also a 2020-21 low.
Sophomore Jensen Castle just narrowly missed her third top-20 showing in the last four events by tying for 26th. She will be disappointed with her 76 on Sunday given her past success and her high expectations, but UK used all three of her scores again this weekend, making her 21 for 21 in that regard this season and 36 for 38 in her two-year Kentucky career.
Sophomore Marissa Wenzler tied for 49th at 15-over par with a final-round 77. She showed signs of shaking out a recent funk with two birdies in the finale.
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. The Wildcats beat their 54-hole fall score by two strokes.
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.
