ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Following a first round that was filled with less than ideal weather conditions, the Eagles closed out the World Golf Hall of Fame Invitational with a +56 final total score of 632 for a 10th-place finish at the Slammer and Squire on Monday.
Carson-Newman as a team shot 23-over on the second day and was the best Par 3 team in the 18-team field, averaging 3.13 on such holes with a +5 score. The Eagles improved by 10 total strokes on Monday, going from a 321 total in the first round to a 311 in the second.
C-N shot on par for 102 holes, the fourth-most in the tournament.
"We did much better today overall as a team," head coach Suzanne Strudwick analyzed. "I saw some excellent shots but still a lot of rust. It has given our team a lot to work on before our next tournament."
Elizabeth England (Oakland, Tenn.) moved up six spots on the leaderboard by the end of Monday to finish at the 10 spot with a 149 total after shooting even on the day, putting her at five-over for the tournament. She was tied with four other participants as the second-best performer on Par 3 scoring holes, averaging 2.88 with a one-under showing.
England's round of 72 matches her season-low that she also recorded in the second round at both the Patsy Rendleman Invitational and Trevecca Music City Invitational.
In the second round alone, the senior shot for par on 14 holes while hitting birdies on holes 4 and 10 with back-to-back bogeys to close out her final round. She was on par for eight of her first nine holes of the day, hitting for birdie on her first hole of the day.
Sophomore Reagan Kinnie (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) was +6 in the second round shooting a second-consecutive round of 78 to give her a total score of 156 to help her stay at a tie for 24th.
Allie Fletcher (Cumming, Ga.) made the biggest improvement on the team through both rounds of play, jumping up the board nine spots to garner a 50th-place showing with a 162 total score, shooting a six-over round of 78 to improve on her first round 84. The sophomore was 18-over for the event.
Fletcher shot on par for a total of 24 holes in the tournament, placing her in a tie at the seventh-most on-par shots in the competition.
Taylor Hayes (Lake Ozark, Mo.) faced the steepest drop on Monday for the Eagles, falling down 20 spots from her first round to finish in a tie for 66th. She was 12-over on the day, two strokes higher than her opening round of 82 to give her a 166 total.
Five strokes behind Hayes was sophomore Rachel Watts (Newport, Tenn.) who finished the tournament in a tie for 82nd after her five-stroke improvement between the first and second rounds gave her an 11-over final day, moving her to +27 total.
Golfstat's No. 2 team in the nation, Nova Southeastern, took home the hardware with a seven-under round of 281 to finish the tournament with a +9 final of 585. Five strokes separated the first, second and third-place teams as host team No. 24 Flagler finished with a 600 total followed by Florida Tech, the tournament's leader through day one, with 605.
Florida Tech's Noelle Beijer moved from second to first in the final round to win the individual title. She was four-under par on day two with a round of 68. Her -5 total of 139 was four strokes better than West Florida's Paloma Vaccaro who finished second in the field. She was followed by Nova Southeastern's Janelle Johnson who was just two strokes behind Vaccaro with a 145 total to garner a third-place showing.
The next event on the docket for the women's golf team will be another trip back to the Sunshine State for the Women's Spring Intercollegiate hosted by Lincoln Memorial. That event will take place on Feb. 26 and 27 at the Golf Club at Fleming Island in Jacksonville, Fla.
Carson-Newman 321 311 632 +56 10th
Elizabeth England 77 72 149 +5 10th
Reagan Kinnie 78 78 156 +12 T-24th
Allie Fletcher 84 78 162 +18 50th
Taylor Hayes 82 84 166 +22 T-66th
Rachel Watts 88 83 171 +27 T-82nd
