Hana Kim trudged into the clubhouse with an 83, a round marred by a miscalculation, a soaked ball and subsequently, a quadruple bogey. Her team did not fare much better, flubbing and duffing their way to a second-round 312 (24-over) in the Bryan National Collegiate Tournament in Browns Summit, N.C.
Standing in 13th place out of 17 squads, the Northwestern women’s golf team was in trouble. But the Wildcats still had one reason to keep their chins up – Sunday’s final round.
To most golfers, it’s the time to crack open the Tums bottle and smack a few more drives on the range. With 18 holes to make a final push, players are mandated to leave everything out on the course. And NU did just that.
The Cats rebounded with a 296 on Sunday, clawing up the leaderboard to finish tied for ninth with fellow Big Ten member, Purdue. NU’s best score of the spring helped it complete the five-tournament tour of the South on a high note.
“I think that in the spring we have not been in the best position after the second round,” Kim said. “We realize that and we are taking the initiative on our own accord to do what we have to do.”
The late spurt was nothing new for NU, which has made a habit of playing its best golf in crunch time. Competing in last month’s “Mo”morial, the Cats shaved four spots in the final round, moving into a respectable seventh place out of 18 teams. Several weeks later NU dropped from fifth to fourth place in the final round of the 20-team Baylor-Tapatio Springs Shootout in Boerne, Texas. The final-round spurts have distanced NU from the back of the pack, but players remain far from satisfied.
“It was a pretty strong field, but we definitely should have finished in the top five,” Kim said of this weekend’s event. “We beat a lot of those teams in the fall and we didn’t perform as well as we’re capable of.”
Kim was one of three NU players to post 1-over scores of 73 in the final round. After struggling on Saturday, Kim worked on her swing and her head in between rounds.
The self-help session put her back on track, and she climbed 17 spots on the leaderboard. While those efforts earned her tie for 42nd , the inability to avoid a meltdown was frustrating.
“It’s just odd that it’s happened that way,” Kim said. “I don’t try to think about it because if I go in like that, I’ll play defensive golf.”
Senior Emily Gilley also notched a 73 on Sunday, finishing in a tie for 12th place overall. One of a few NU players to avoid a major lapse, Gilley’s three-round total of 223 (7-over) was her best performance of the spring.
Ranked 32nd in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin poll, NU rounds up its season in the Midwest with tournaments at Ohio State and Illinois. The Cats head to Columbus on April 20 for the Lady Buckeye and Spring Invitational.
