Tide Women's Golf Concludes Play at SEC Championship
4/18/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
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BATON ROUGE, La. – University of Alabama senior Mandy Tedder saved her best for last posting a team-leading final round of 75 on Sunday at the Southeastern Conference Championship Tournament being held at the LSU University Club.
Tedder, who was playing in her fourth straight SEC Championship for the Tide, carded her second lowest round ever at the league’s end-of-the-year event.
“Mandy played an outstanding round in the final 18 holes of her SEC career,” said UA head coach Betty Palmer. “I’m very happy and proud of how she finished today. I am also pleased with our team’s overall play today. We just had trouble on the greens. We struggled all weekend with our putting and it was a problem for us again on Sunday. We had some chances but just couldn’t get the ball in the hole. We take the next few weeks to hopefully work that out and be ready for play in the NCAA Regional.”
As a team, Alabama posted a disappointing 10th place finish at the SEC Championship including a final round 307, the team’s highest of the weekend. The Tide shot a 913 (306-300-307) over the 54 holes of the event.
Junior Megan George and freshman Amy Middleton were the Crimson Tide’s top performers as the pair finished in a tie for 26th. The pair both recorded tournament totals of 225 with George posting rounds of 75-73-77 and Middleton shooting 76-72-77.
Darby Sligh, the team’s stroke average leader, finished in a tie for 45th at 233 (79-76-78). Tedder earned a tie for 51st at 235 (81-79-75) and sophomore Carina Sorensen was tied for 53rd at 236 (76-81-79) to round out the list of Tide performers.
Vanderbilt earned a clean sweep of the conference titles posting a four-shot victory in the team competition while also boasting the individual medallist. The Commodores finished with a score of 877 to edge defending champs Auburn (881) and event host LSU (881). Tennessee finished fourth at 882 followed by Florida (885), Georgia (890), South Carolina (899), Ole Miss (905), Arkansas (909), Alabama, Mississippi State (923) and Kentucky (929).
VU’s May Wood finished tied with Tennessee’s Violeta Retamoza at three-under-par 213, but earned the medallist crown with a par on the first playoff hole.
Alabama now plays the waiting game as the Tide prepares for an expected invitation to one of the three NCAA Regionals on May 6-8. The field for the NCAA Regionals will be announced on Monday, Apr. 26. The Regionals will be played at Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. (East), Normal, Ill., (Central) and Palo Alto, Calif. (West). The NCAA Championship Tournament is being hosted by Auburn on May 18-21 at the AU University Golf Club.
