Special to the News
Published: September 7, 2009
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Auburn junior Cydney Clanton carded a 2-under-par 142 Sunday, earning medalist honors while leading the Auburn women’s golf team to the No. 3 seed at the 2009 Hooters Collegiate Match Play Championship.
The Tigers finished the day in a tie for third with LSU, but won the tiebreaker for the right to play No. 6 seed Alabama in the first round of match play.
As a team, Auburn posted a 14-over-par 590 to take the No. 3 overall seed in the 36-hole qualifier. The Tigers placed four players in the top 30, led by Clanton in first and sophomore Haley Wilson in a tie for 13th. Senior Candace Schepperle and freshman Carlie Yadloczky both came in tied for 29th while sophomore Patricia Sanz rounded out the scoring in a tie for 37th out of the 80-player field.
“I’m very pleased with how we did today, being our first tournament of the season,” said Auburn head coach Kim Evans. “We still have a lot of work to do. I feel like we should have won today, but we still played very well.”
Auburn held the lead coming down the stretch, but gave up some costly strokes on Nos. 17 and 18 to fall into a tie for third.
“It was a little bit of a let down, I felt like we lost some steam coming in,” said Evans. “But, we still played some great golf today and have match play starting tomorrow.”
The highlight of the day came from Clanton as she earned her first outright collegiate victory. Her first-place finish is her best since tying for first at the 2007 Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship.
“I’m so proud of Cydney and how she played today,” said Evans. “She hit some big shots and had a big lead late in the second round. It was great seeing her hold on to get the win, that is a great accomplishment for her.”
Clanton started the day with a 1-over 73 in the first round, but tied for the lowest round of the day as she finished with a 3-under 69 in the second round to finish at 2-under 142. Clanton was at 5-under par for her second round heading into No. 18 but suffered a double-bogey to finish out her round.
Wilson, a native of Ft. Mitchell, finished four strokes behind Clanton to tie for 13th with a 2-over 146. Schepperle and Yadloczky posted 7-over-par 151s to finish in a tie for 29th while Sanz rounded out the lineup with an 8-over 152.
In the team scoring, Florida took the top spot with a 9-over585, followed by South Carolina at 10-over-par 586. LSU and Auburn tied for third with 14-over 590s while Georgia rounded out the top five with a 16-over 592.
Also advancing to the championship bracket are Alabama with a 24-over 600, followed by Virginia (601) and Tennessee Chattanooga (602). The eight teas advancing to the consolation bracket are Kent State (603), Duke (606), Texas Christian (607), North Carolina (607), Georgia State (610), Ole Miss (623), Colorado (624) and Central Florida (635).
“We have to take everything from today and put it behind us to start match play tomorrow,” said Evans. “We have a veteran team and then know how to get up for situations like this, and it will be a good experience for some of our younger players.”
Auburn will return to the course for shotgun start at 8 a.m. today with the Tigers taking on in-state rival Alabama in the first round of match play. The winner will return to the course in the afternoon to face the winner of the South Carolina-Virginia match.
0 comments:
Post a Comment