The Kentucky women’s golf team wrapped up its three-tournament fall slate by tying for eighth place at the Liz Murphey Fall Collegiate Classic.
The Wildcats continued to show improvement this weekend with their best 54-hole team total of the season, a 21-over-par 885, but they couldn’t remain near the leaders by Sunday’s end after jumping into first place just a day earlier.
UK fired an 11-over par 299 on Sunday, its highest score of the three rounds at the UGA Golf Course (par 72, 6,302 yards) in Athens, Georgia, ultimately dropping two spots in the final round.
Sophomore Marissa Wenzler, after opening the tournament with a 78, made a nice comeback over the Saturday and Sunday rounds with a 70 and 73, respectively. She tied for 22nd at 5-over par to lead Kentucky.
Auburn held off a hard-charging Tennessee to win the Liz Murphey Fall Collegiate Classic at even par. There was a three-way tie for first place among the 60-player field with Mikayla Bardwell of Tennessee, Megan Schofill from Auburn and Hannah Levin of Mississippi State all at 3-under par.
After shooting themselves in the foot in the first two tournaments of the season, the Wildcats got off to a much better start this weekend and stayed in the mix heading into the final round. UK took a two-shot lead midway through the second round but couldn’t hang on to the advantage nor make a run in the tournament’s conclusion.
Sunday marked the final day of competition for the fall for Kentucky. The Wildcats would be the first to admit they didn’t play up to the standards they set for themselves this fall after a breakthrough 2019-20 campaign, but they were also grateful to get play in three tournaments when the season, at one point, appeared in jeopardy because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After careful consideration from health officials, the SEC deemed it safe for league membership to participate in three team events in the fall but teams were limited to events involving only SEC members or nonconference teams from the tournament host’s geographic region. The conference-only competition made for difficult tests in all three tournaments for UK, but it should serve the Wildcats well in the spring. In this weekend’s 12-team field, eight teams, including Kentucky, were ranked in the top 15 of Golfweek’s rankings.
Wenzler’s 73 on Sunday led the Wildcats. After battling back Saturday from the tournament-opening 78, Wenzler opened with a triple bogey on the second hole of the day, but she did not cave in. She settled down with pars on her next four holes and would go on to birdie four of the final 12 holes with just two bogeys to get to 1-over par for the day.
The sophomore from Centerville, Ohio is coming off a summer that included two championship and two runner-up finishes, plus Wenzler posted the third-best scoring average in school history as a freshman last season. To get back to how well she was playing, Wenzler will look for better starts to her tournaments in the spring. She shot 79, 79 and 78 in all three opening rounds in the fall but battled back nicely in the final two. This weekend’s score was Wenzler’s best of the three fall tournaments.
Freshman Laney Frye is off to an impressive start to her collegiate career despite a sour finish Sunday. Frye was in the top 10 after opening this weekend with a 71. She followed that with a 73 on Saturday but was done in by a 79 in the final round. Frye tied for 26th at 7-over par overall.
Earlier this fall, at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational, Frye was the top freshman finisher in the field when she tied for sixth in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Jensen Castle had what would be a fine fall for most golfers, but the talented sophomore has personally set the bar high after making the All-SEC First Team and setting the school’s single-season stroke average record in 2019-20. After a 75 Sunday, she recorded a three-round total of 8-over par this weekend to tie for 33rd. She will try to return to her freshman form this spring after posting five top-20 finishes in six events in her freshman campaign.
Sophomore María Villanueva Aperribay made her debut for Kentucky this weekend after transferring from Augusta. She showcased her potential in the first and third rounds with a 73 and a 74, respectively. A 78 in the second round pulled her down to a tie for 38th at 9-over par.
Senior Rikke Svejgård Nielsen tied for 45th at 11-over par. She followed back-to-back 75s with a 78 in the finale.
Kentucky enters a three-month break before resuming the 2020-21 season in the spring. UK’s spring slate includes four tournaments in February and March before postseason play begins April 14 with the SEC Championship in Hoover, Alabama.
UK will then hope to make its seventh NCAA regional appearance in 11 seasons under Borst. The Wildcats have both the talent and the depth to make a run for the postseason after returning the bulk of the 2019-20 team that won two championships, placed second in another, set team and individual scoring records, and posted 10 top-10 and 20 top-20 individual showings.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s golf team, follow the team on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
– GO CATS –
For more information contact:
Eric Lindsey
