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Lady Puerto Rico Rio Mar River Course Rio Mar, P.R. NU's Place: t-5th/15 teams BirdieFire.com Scoring Round One Results  | |
RIO MAR, P.R. -- In its first round of the spring season Sunday morning at the Lady Puerto Rico hosted by Purdue at the Rio Mar River Course, Northwestern put itself squarely in contention among a stacked field.
NU fired an 8-over 296 in the opening round to find itself in a fifth-place tie alongside No. 20 LSU in the 15-team field. The seventh-ranked Wildcats (according to Golfstat) are three shots behind a third-place tie between TCU and Iowa State, five strokes in back of Kent State and six shots shy off the lead held by No. 4 Arkansas.
Northwestern is one shot in front of seventh-place No. 18 N.C. State and also leads other notables like No. 21 Auburn (10th place) and No. 26 GRU Augusta (12th).
The shotgun start saw the highly ranked Wildcats begin on holes 1-4, and Northwestern struggled to a combined 18-over par score among all five players on the difficult front nine. NU bounced back to play the second nine in 1-under as a squad.
Freshman Hannah Kim (Chula Vista, Calif./Otay Ranch) began the shotgun start at No. 3 and stood at even-par through nine holes Sunday. She then made a bogey at the par-4 12th hole, but got that stroke back with a birdie on No. 17. Kim finished her round at even-par 72 to enter Monday in eighth place among the tourney's top 10 individuals.
Senior Hana Lee (Hacienda Heights, Calif./Wilson) had an inauspicious beginning to her tournament with a double bogey on her opening hole -- the par 4 second -- but she quickly responded with birdies at Nos. 4-5 to erase the mistake. Still standing at even par entering her final hole, Lee carded a bogey to finish the day in 13th place overall at 1-over 73.
Junior Kaitlin Park (Tustin, Calif./Beckman) mitigated a four-bogey front nine with two birdies at Nos. 7 and 8 to make the turn at 2-over 38. She briefly got back to 1-over par on the back side before a bogey at the par-5 15th left her at 2-over 74 for the day. Park is in 20th place in the standings.
Junior Suchaya Tangkamolprasert (Bangkok, Thailand/Bromsgrove Christian School) had the tale of two nines Sunday, thankfully recovering from a rough front side to give herself momentum heading into Monday's second round. After turning at 6-over 42, Tangkamolprasert carded eight pars and one birdie at the par-4 13th hole coming home to finish at 5-over 77 on the day. She is 46th overall among the field.
Freshman Sarah Cho's (San Diego, Calif./Torrey Pines) first-collegiate start as a member of the team lineup saw an early rough patch when she went bogey-bogey-double on Nos. 7-9. She would finish her round with the same combination over the final three holes for a 9-over 81.
Sophomore Kacie Komoto (Honolulu, Hawaii/Punahou) competed as an individual in this tournament, starting with a bogey on her first hole, the par-4 13th. A second bogey seven holes later put her 2-over before she got back to even with birdies at Nos. 5 and 8. Komoto would eventually end her day in 20th place at 2-over 74.
The second round of the Lady Puerto Rico is tomorrow, Monday, Feb. 16.
Northwestern - t-5th/15 296 (+8)
T8 -- Hannah Kim -- 72 (E)
T13 -- Hana Lee -- 73 (+1)
T20 -- Kaitlin Park -- 74 (+2)
T20 -- Kacie Komoto * -- 74 (+2)
T46 -- Suchaya Tangkamolprasert -- 77 (+5)
T67 -- Sarah Cho -- 81 (+9)
* Denotes playing as an individual
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