Despite climbing in the standings on the final day, the Gophers didn’t break the top ten at the Lady Paladin Invitational.
Minnesota finished the tournament tied for 15th out of 20 teams this weekend in South Carolina. They sat at 18th after the first round, tied for 17th after the second round and moved up to a tie for 15th in the final round.
The Gophers fired a combined 305 in the first round, 304 in the second and 298 in the third for a total of 907, 43 over par. Texas won team championship with a score of 853, 11 under par.
“We struggled a little bit,” said head coach Michele Redman. “We just haven’t been finishing our rounds the last three rounds, so that’s something we need to work on.”
Minnesota had more birdies on the front nine than the back nine in the first two rounds.
In round one, the Gophers had seven birdies on the front nine while only carding one on the back nine. It was the same story with round two, as 11 birdies were hit on the front nine while there were only five on the back nine.
Individually, the Gophers were close. Only seven strokes separated five Minnesota golfers. Junior Heather Ciskowski led the Gophers again this tournament.
Ciskowski improved her score each round, shooting 77 in the first, 76 in the secondand 71 in the third, leading to an eight over par total.
Following closely behind Ciskowski were sophomore Muyu Wu and senior Emie Peronnin who both tied for 60th. Wu finished with 81 in the first round, 73 in the second and 75 in the third.
Peronnin carded back-to-back 77s and a 75 in round three.
Junior Sabrine Garrison and sophomore Maggie Heggerston came in behind the top three Minnesota golfers. Garrison shot a 230 on the weekend, 14 over par while Heggerston fired a 231, 15 over par.
Sophomore Niamh Ward competed as an individual this weekend and scored a 238, 22 over par. Texas’ Emilee Hoffman was the tournament medalist at 210, six under par.
Minnesota is determined to use this tournament to get better.
“We need to get rid of anything worse than a bogey from our scorecard,” Redman said. “We need to work on finishing and scoring.”
Minnesota’s next tournament is on Oct. 17 at the Betsy Rawls Invitational in Austin, Texas.
