BRADENTON, Fla. – Baylor women's golf is in third place after day one at the NCAA Championship, but the Bears were only able to complete 11 holes before Friday's first-round play at The Concession Golf Club was suspended due to lightning. BU is at 7-over-par after finishing 62 of 90 individual holes.
Stanford (+3) leads the tournament and has also played 62 holes as a team. Duke (+5, 293) had the best score of the 12 teams to complete their first rounds, followed by Southern California (+9, 297) in fourth and Arizona (+12, 300) in fifth place. All 24 teams in the field have completed at least 10 holes, and the 12 teams whose rounds were suspended will resume play at 7:30 a.m. CT Saturday. The second round will begin at 8 a.m. for the 12 teams that completed the first round Friday.
Laura Lonardi leads the Bears and is tied for sixth place individually at 1-under through 12 holes. She made three straight birdies on holes 8-10. Freshman Dylan Kim is tied for 23rd place at 2-over through 12 holes, with 10 pars and two bogeys.
Hayley Davis got off to a slow start at 6-over through eight holes, but she made three straight birdies on holes 9-11 to get to 3-over with seven holes remaining in the round before play was suspended. Giovana Maymon is tied with Davis in 32nd place at 3-over through 13 holes, and Lauren Whyte is tied for 74th at 6-over through 14 holes.
HIGHLIGHTS
· Davis and Lonardi joined UCLA's Louise Ridderstrom as the only golfers in the 132-player field to make three consecutive birdies on Friday.
· Baylor is fourth in the 24-team field in par-4 scoring average at 4.21.
· Baylor is sixth in the field with a 3.19 par-3 scoring average and eighth with a 5.25 par-5 scoring average – the Bears join Southern California as the only teams ranked in the top 10 in par-3, par-4 and par-5 scoring.
· Despite playing only 62 of 90 holes while 12 teams completed the first round, Baylor is tied for 10th in the field with 10 birdies made.
· Lonardi is second in the field in par-4 scoring average at 3.71, while Davis is tied for ninth at 4.00.
· Lonardi is one of 12 players tied for the tournament lead with four birdies – nine of those 12 players completed the first round, while Lonardi has six holes remaining to add to her total.
STAT OF THE ROUND
3 – the number of golfers to make three consecutive birdies on Friday, two of which were Baylor's Davis and Lonardi. Davis and Lonardi were also two of the three players to make birdies on hole No. 9.
TOP QUOTE
"It's a really challenging golf course just all the way around," head coach Jay Goble said. "I haven't looked at the scoreboard very much. I know that Texas A&M and UCLA have great teams, and they played not well this morning. The course played hard for everybody, it played hard for us. We still have some of the hard holes to finish. So we're just going to wake up early and go out there and start grinding again."
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor players will resume their first round at 7:30 a.m. CT Saturday. The Bears are scheduled to begin their second rounds from the 10th tee at 9 a.m., with Whyte up first. She'll be followed in 10-minute intervals by Maymon, Lonardi, Kim and Davis, respectively.
DAY ONE RESULTS
Team (score) – holes completed
1. Stanford (+3) – 11
2. Duke (+5) – F
3. Baylor (+7) – 11
4. Southern California (+9) – F
5. Arizona (+12) – F
T6. Northwestern (+13) – 11
T6. Washington (+13) – F
T6. Tennessee (+13) – F
T6. Alabama (+13) – 15
T10. North Carolina State (+14) – 10
T10. Campbell (+14) – 10
T10. Purdue (+14) – 15
13. UNLV (+17) – 16
14. UC Davis (+19) – 16
15. South Carolina (+20) – F
T16. California (+21) – 10
T16. Virginia (+21) – F
T16. LSU (+21) – F
T16. Texas A&M (+21) – F
T20. Wake Forest (+22) – F
T20. Tulane (+22) – 16
T20. Arkansas (+22) – F
23. Texas Tech (+26) – 15
24. UCLA (+31) – F
