Women’s golf team in 8th place at conference championships

JJ Bullock, Assistant Sports Editor

There is a 32-stroke difference between the 7th place team and the 8th place teams in the women’s Ohio Valley Conference golf championships and Eastern finds itself in the latter after day one of the three-day tournament.

The Panthers sit at +63 par, trailing Murray State who leads the tournament at +19 par. The 32-stroke gap between Eastern and Belmont (+31 par) serves as a barrier between two packs of teams, one still vying for contention and one needing to make up major ground.

Eastern, along with Tennessee State, which sits in 9th place at +74 par, both have a lot of strokes to make up on day two if either will have any chance at contending.

Eastern was led in scoring by senior Anne Bahr, who shot +11 par, splitting with a +5 on the front nine, and a +6 on the back.

Bahr had seven bogeys and had one double bogey on both the front and back nine holes.

“My putting saved me a lot today. I couldn’t have done too many things differently, honestly,” Bahr said. “I gained some strokes in places and lost some in others, so it all balanced out.”

Trailing slightly behind Bahr was junior Daphne Chang, who shot +13 over. Chang had a chance to lead Eastern, but she fired a triple-bogey on the 11th hole.

Senior Hannah Magda came in at +17 par as she had five double bogeys on the front nine, all coming on holes 4-9.

At +22 par, freshman McKenzie O’Brien was one of two Panther golfers that shot over 90.

O’Brien had one triple-bogey on both the front and back nine holes and finished with three double-bogeys on top of that.

Rounding out the scoring for Eastern was junior Katlyn Hasprey, who shot +28 par. She had two triple bogeys and seven double-bogeys.

“We played alright,” Bahr said. “It wasn’t our best, so we’re hoping for better tomorrow, especially since it’ll be a little warmer.”

To improve tomorrow with the weather, Bahr said the team needs to improve on its lag putting.

“The greens here are pretty big at this course, so it’s easy to three-putt,” Bahr said. “We also need to be more conscious of where to land the ball. It’s a placement course, so if you don’t land the ball in the right spot, it can be penalizing.”

No players in the tournament finished under par. Murray State’s Lucilia Puente Rodriguez leads the field at even par.

The lack of scoring from the field as a whole could be credited to the conditions, which Bahr said were “tough.”

Temperatures were in the 30’s or 40’s, and when they teed off, Bahr said there were high winds and an overcast.

“The sun came out after a while, but it was still windy all day, which made a difficult course to begin with just that much harder,” Bahr said. “We were definitely wearing a lot of layers.”

Jacksonville State trails Murray State by just one stroke.

Eastern Kentucky and Austin Peay both sit five strokes behind the Racers.

Tennessee Tech (+25), Morhead State (+28) and Belmont (+31) round out the teams all still vying for top seeding going into day number two.

JJ Bullock can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]