Alabama Women?s Golfers Sixth at Lady Puerto Rico Classic
2/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico ?? The Crimson Tide women's golf team opened up its spring schedule on Friday at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic, an event being played on the Coco Beach Golf Course in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. Alabama is in sixth place at the 16-team tournament after one round of play.
"I thought it went pretty well for it being the first tournament of the spring," said head coach Mic Potter. "You never know what is going to happen, no matter how you have been playing coming in, because there is a different type of pressure now. We put up a pretty good score, but we lost some shots coming in. The wind got up a little bit toward the end and we missed some short putts and made some mistakes we didn't make early in the round."
The Tide, who had two top-five finishes while setting a new school record for a single round in the fall portion of the 2006-07 season, carded a team score of 297 in its first 18 holes of the spring campaign. Alabama stands one stroke behind hosting Purdue for fifth place and is just three strokes behind fourth-place South Carolina.
TCU shot a 289 and leads the event after the first round, with highly-ranked Oklahoma State and Auburn tied for second place with rounds of 292 each.
All-American Jenny Suh got her final spring season in collegiate golf off to a start with a two-under par round of 70. Suh, who won her fourth medal of her career in the fall, is tied for third place on the individual leaderboard.
"Jenny was very solid as usual, with three birdies and one bogey," Potter said. "The wind doesn't affect her too much because she drives it so well. It was probably not her best ball-striking round today, but she made several saves from the bunker and that helped her maintain momentum."
Valentine Derrey of TCU leads the field after carding a five-under 67 on the opening day.
Teammate Sarah Sturm fired a 74 in her initial round of the spring and joins Suh in the top 20 among the individuals. Sturm was second on the team behind Suh in overall stroke average last season as a sophomore.
Two true freshmen, Rhea Nair and Helena Blomberg, each of whom saw extensive playing time in the fall season, are competing at the event for Alabama. Nair posted a 76 and is tied for 33rd place, while Blomberg recorded a 77 and is in a tie for 45th.
"They lost a few shots coming in and some of that was probably just being the first tournament, but they are both good players and know we need them to step up," said Potter. "I think they will continue to improve throughout the weekend."
The final Tide competitor, sophomore Laura Goodwin, shot a six-over 78 and is tied for 54th place.
The second of three scheduled rounds of the Lady Puerto Rico Classic is set to begin at 6:00 a.m. (CT) on Saturday, Feb. 26. Puerto Rico is in the Atlantic time zone, which is two hours ahead of the central time zone.
Livestats are available on the internet, provided by the hosts from Purdue, at http://purduesports.cstv.com/sports/m-golf/spec-rel/07-puerto-rico-live-scoring.html .
