The wind gusted, the pins were tucked, and the Minnesota women’s golf team had quite a rough final round yesterday at Pete Dye’s links-style Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind.
The Gophers posted a 34-over par 322 as a team for a 54-hole total of 940 and a 13th place finish out of 15 teams at the Indiana Invitational.
After starting the day in 12th, Minnesota tallied its highest score of the tournament and slipped to 13th behind Illinois State, which carded a final round 305 to vault past the Gophers.
No. 6 Purdue ran away with the team and individual championship, as it fired a 12-under 852 for a 42 stroke victory, led by medalist Junthima Gulyanamitta, whose 7-under 209 was enough for a 4-shot win over teammate Maria Hernandez.
Minnesota’s top finisher was freshman Mary Narzisi, who put together rounds of 76, 77 and 79 for solo 39th.
Starting on the back nine yesterday, an early triple bogey threatened to sabotage her round, but Narzisi refused to let one hole faze her.
“After the triple, I was only four holes in,” she said. “That course offers you a lot of birdie opportunities if you take them. You can score on the front nine really well, so I just remembered I had a lot of holes to go.”
A couple more bogeys on the back left Narzisi with a 41, but she recovered with a 38 coming in to pace the Gophers.
Fellow freshman Teresa Puga and junior Young Na Lee also fired final round 79s while junior Paige Broman was the final golfer to have her score count, posting an 85.
Broman came into the day as Minnesota’s low golfer, carding a 75 and a 76 and rattling off six birdies in the first two rounds.
But yesterday, seven bogeys and three doubles dropped her back significantly in the standings, from a tie for 32nd to a tie for 46th.
Broman said tougher conditions and difficult pin placements may have contributed to her poor play, but that wasn’t the whole story.
“At the end of the day, you still have to hit the shots,” she said. “I just didn’t quite execute as well as I did the day before.”
Broman also thinks she tried to “bite off more than (she) could chew” on difficult holes, leading to some big numbers.
But despite the big numbers, the fact that Broman recognized her mistake is encouraging to associate head coach Kristine Wessinger.
“I think everyone is going to take something (from the tournament) and learn from it,” she said.
