Tide Women's Golf Holding Steady at SEC Championship
4/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
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BATON ROUGE, La. - Saturday is traditionally called "Moving Day" at a college golf tournament and that's exactly what the University of Alabama women's golf team tried to do in the second round of the SEC Championship at LSU's University Club with a second round score of 300.
The Crimson Tide trimmed six shots off their opening round score but were unable to move up from ninth place with their solid play. However, Alabama did close the gap on some teams in front of them moving to within one shot of eighth and only four shots out of seventh heading into the final round.
Freshman Amy Middleton led the Bama charge on Saturday carding an even-par 72 to climb into the Top 20 with a 13th-place tie score of 148 for the event. Junior teammate Megan George, UA's top player on Friday, continued her strong play shooting a one-over-par 73 to finish even with Middleton at 148 in 13th position in the individual competition.
Junior Darby Sligh carded a four-over-par 76 that included playing the final six holes of the day even par while senior Mandy Tedder posted a 79 and sophomore Carina Sorensen shot an 81 to round of the Tide's scoring on Saturday. Sligh is tied for 43rd at 155, Sorensen is tied for 50th at 157 and Tedder is knotted at 59th at 160.
"It was good to see us have a strong finish today," said UA head coach Betty Palmer. "Conditions were great for scoring and it appears most teams took advantage of that opportunity. It was nice to be able to close the gap on some of the teams just in front of us. Hopefully we can continue this improvement on Sunday and earn a finish in the top half of the field. I was very proud of how well Amy and Megan both played today."
Alabama's improvement can be directly traced to their play on the final three holes of competition. On Friday, the Tide played their closing trio of holes in nine-over-par, but on Saturday UA finished the same stretch in just three-over equaling their overall stroke improvement from round one to round two.
Vanderbilt shot a round of 291 on Saturday to catalpult into the lead of the team competition. Vanderbilt sits at 586 for the event, one shot in front of day one leader Auburn at 587. Tennessee is in third at 588 followed by Florida & LSU at 592, Georgia (595), South Carolina (603), Arkansas (605), ALABAMA (606), Ole Miss (610), Mississippi State (615) and Kentucky (624). Lady Commodore May Wood carded a five-under-par 67 to take sole possession of the individual medalist competition on Saturday.
SEC Championship action concludes with a final round of 18 holes on Sunday. Alabama begins play at 9:20 a.m. off the #10 tee and will be paired with South Carolina and Arkansas. It marks the third consecutive round that UA has began play on the back nine at the par 72, 6,387-yard layout of the University Club of LSU.
Live final round action of the event can be followed on the internet at www.golfstat.com.
