Women’s golf competes at Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championship Tournament

Kent State’s women’s golf team finished in 11th place out of 17 teams in its second tournament of the season on Monday and Tuesday.

“I’ve been here three weeks, and it’s been great to watch our team play in back-to-back tournaments and get an idea of what they do competitively and get to know them a little bit individually and see how they operate under pressure,” coach Casey VanDamme said.

The tournament took place in Knoxville, Tennessee and was hosted by the University of Tennessee.

The first round of play left the Flashes in seventh place with a score of 5-above-par 279. After round two, the team fell to eighth place shooting 12-above-par 580 overall after Monday’s day of competition.

“It rained for most of the event,” VanDamme said. “We just struggled a little bit. A positive take on it was the coaches got to see how people deal with struggle.”

Kent shot 12-above-par 296 in round three. The team’s overall tournament score was 26-above-par 878 for an 11th place finish.

“I think we can make some good adjustments down the road and it might be helpful that we went through some struggles,” VanDamme said.

Brigham Young University won the tournament by carding a 2-over-par, 854 and the individual winner was freshman Chloe Holder of Augusta University who shot a 6-under-par, 207.

Individually for the Flashes, fifth year Chloe Salort tied for 44th place shooting a 9-over-par 222 and freshman Jennifer Gu carded a 10-over-par 223 to finish in a tie for 51st place. 

Sophomore Mayka Hoogeboom and junior Valentina Albertazzi each shot 11-over-par 224 to finish tied for 58th place.

“We’ve had all of them at different times stick out individually,” VanDamme said. “We just need to get some consistency and to put together a string of three straight rounds consistently.”

Kent will be back in action at the Illini Women’s Invitational at Medinah hosted by the University of Illinois on Oct. 11-12.

“[Before the next tournament] We’re going back to basics a little bit and trying to get the fundamentals worked on,” VanDamme said. “We’re really going to practice our short game in particular.”

Kathryn Rajnicek is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].