ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop women's golf team shot the second lowest score for the final round and jumped up one spot from Monday to finish third overall at the Winthrop Intercollegiate being played at Rock Hill Country Club.
Winthrop jumped ahead of Princeton on the final day to finish third, just three strokes back of the overall winner. Xavier University and Belmont Abbey College both tied with 949 after Xavier fired a three-round best 308, overcoming a nine stroke deficit to force a playoff. Both teams were tied after all five golfers from each team played 18 and they did it again. This time Xavier's Audrey Fellmeth drained an eight-foot putt to win the playoff.
In the Individuals, Winthrop's Rachel Smith fired a final round 73 to capture the overall by five strokes. It is the first career win for Smith and the second straight year the winner has come from Winthrop. Smith trailed Anna Jang of Princeton by two strokes, but Jang shot an 83 on Tuesday and Smith tied for the low round of the tournament. Rachel Blum of Princeton, playing as an individual, fired a final round 73 and finished in second.
Smith finished -2 on the Par 3's and -1 on the Par 5's to help her capture her first collegiate victory. She also tied for first with the most birdies and pars.
Princeton finished fourth overall followed by Gardner-Webb, Presbyterian College, High Point, Marshall, USC Upstate, Wisconsin-Green Bay, St. Francis (Pa.) and the University of Findlay.
Kayla Cline shot a 77 in her final round for a three-round total of 240 and a tie for 11th. Danielle Dunnagan finished in a tie for 23rd after her 78 on Tuesday jumped her seven spots. Katie Bolling was next in 28th followed by Ellie O'Brien in 32nd. Katie Keiser and Allison Atria played as Individuals and finished tied for 40th and tied for 47th respectively.
The scoring average for the three rounds, which were skewed by wet conditions, was 84.92 with Tuesday's final round playing the easiest at 84.01.
The Lady Eagles will be back in action on next week, March 22-23, at the UNC Wilmington Lady Seahawk Classic in Wallace, NC. It will be their last competition before the Big South Conference Championship (Apr. 12-14).
