The Northwestern women’s golf team stood neck-and-neck with Michigan after two rounds at the the Shoot-out at the Legends in Franklin, Ind. And on Tuesday, with strong final rounds from sophomores Ina Kim and Mary Ellen Grzebien, the Wildcats held on to finish in a sixth-place tie with the Wolverines.
“Overall, we did all right,” Kim said. “We were improving every round.”
Senior Elizabeth Burden led NU for the third straight tournament, shooting a final-round 77 to finish in 14th place.
Kim placed 20th, shooting a 1-over 73 to finish the tournament at 11-over. And Grzebien, who fired a 2-over 74 in the fourth round, finished 24th.
After getting used to the course, Grzebien said she put everything together and played a lot better in the last round.
“The scores in this last tournament are much better than some of our tournaments last spring,” Grzebien said. “It took us a few tournaments to get into the swing of things.”
The 16-team tournament, which was won by Kent State, included some of the top teams in the Midwest and the Big Ten. Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois all finished above NU.
Grzebien said the team could have placed higher with a better first-round performance. The Cats shot a 309 in the opening round, their worst of the tournament.
NU participated in the Shoot-out without their leading scorer from last season — as they have all fall. Junior Hana Kim, Ina Kim’s older sister, transferred to UCLA in the spring.
But Grzebien said the team still has strong players, including another sister pair — the Breslins.
“It’s just a different dynamic (without Hana),” Grzebien said.
The Cats close out their fall season at the 2002 Mercedes Benz Collegiate Championship Oct. 18 to 20 in Knoxville, Tenn. The tournament will be the team’s fourth of the fall season.
In September, NU participated in two events, finishing seventh at the Lady Northern and 10th at the Rudolph Championships.
“We should be able to finish a little higher up . . . in the top five,” Grzebien said of the Tennessee tournament. “If we start the tournament off OK, we should do really well.”
