ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Strong and swirling winds made for a challenging day Saturday at the Patriot League Women's Golf Championship being contested at the Naval Academy Golf Course in Annapolis. Navy stood in fourth place after the middle day of the three-day championship. The four Mids who scored (out of the six who played) posted a +28 (316) on Saturday.
Richmond improved upon its four scoring rounds by nine shots on Saturday (311 to 302) to move into the lead with a two-day total of +37 (613). The Spiders lead second-place Boston U. by just one shot after the Terriers bettered their Friday score by 12 shots (313 to 301) for a +38 (614). Day one leader Lehigh lost nine strokes in its scores from Friday (304) to Saturday (313) to finish the day in third place with a +41 (617). The Mids at +46 (322) are five shots behind Lehigh with one day to play.
Bucknell stands in fifth place with a +77 (653) and Holy Cross is in sixth place at +89 (665).
Navy entered Saturday in second place after it totaled a +18 (306) on Friday. The Mids began the day two shots in back of Lehigh's +16 (304) and five shots in front of third-place Richmond's +23 (311). The top-three teams from Friday teed off in the second hour Saturday. Those teams were a collective +10 in their four scoring rounds Saturday compared to what they posted together on Friday. The three teams that teed off in the first hour today –– Boston U., Bucknell and Holy Cross –– were a combined -42 in comparison to what they combined for yesterday.
"It has been real windy all spring," said Navy head coach
Nadia Ste-Marie. "It has made golf, and more specifically club selection, more challenging. We have played in that all semester, so you hope at some point it becomes easier to figure out. But it was challenging today in that the course dried up more from the rain we recently had and that made club selection for the greens trickier."
In the individual competition, Navy's
Stephanie Lee (So., Southlake, Texas) is tied for sixth place with a two-day score of +10 (154) and teammate
Bridget Hoang (Fr., Lawrenceville, Ga.) is tied for eighth place with a +12 (156).
Hoang and
Mara Hirtle (So., Pinehurst, N.C.) each shot +6 (78) on Saturday to tie for the best round of the day on the team.
"What I am hearing is that we missed a lot of putts that should have been made," said Ste-Marie. "Whether it is because of this pace or the wind, that's hard to say. I think we were trending really well on the first nine, but we struggled getting the ball in the hole.
"We have to do a better job of managing the course and taking the big scores out of play. We are already practicing for Sunday."
Navy's six players totaled six double bogeys on Friday, but accrued nine doubles and two triple bogeys on Saturday.
Navy shares the lead with Boston U. with a collective score of +47 on the par 4s and ranks second to Richmond in scoring on par 3s (+17 for the Terriers, +21 for the Mids). However, Navy has not been able to take advantage of the par-5 scoring holes as much as the rest of the field. The Mids are +13 on the four long holes, which places them fourth in the field. Lehigh leads the way at +5, Boston U. is second at +9 and Richmond is third at +11.
The championship will conclude with 18 holes Sunday. Navy, Bucknell and Holy Cross will tee off from 8:30-9:20 a.m., with Boston U., Lehigh and Richmond teeing off from 9:30-10:20 a.m.
Lives to live scoring through GolfStat.com are available on NavySports.com.
1. Richmond +37 (311-302=613)
2. Boston U. +38 (313-301=614)
3. Lehigh +41 (304-313=617)
4. Navy +46 (306-316=622)
5. Bucknell +77 (336-317=653)
6. Holy Cross +89 (338-327=665)
