TAZEWELL, Tenn. -- An 11-stroke improvement from the first to second round put No. 24 Carson-Newman in a tie for fifth through the first day of the South Atlantic Conference Championship at the Woodlake Golf Club in Tazewell, Tenn.
"Overall, today was a difficult day with how blustery it was," Carson-Newman women's golf coach Suzanne Strudwick said. "I think we did ok. We were obviously much better in the second round, so I hope we can continue that improvement tomorrow. If we can move up and be top-five tomorrow, I would be pleased."
The Eagles opened the event with a 323 in the morning round before cutting down to a 312 as it headed into the clubhouse after Monday. They saw just 11 birdies through both rounds. By the end of the day, just two shots separated the top-four Eagles in the field.
Senior Matilda Frövenholt (Öjersjö, Sweden) was the lone Eagle in the top 20 by the end of Monday, holding down a share of 19th with a 15-over 159. She started the day with an 82 in the first round before getting down to a 77 in the nightcap. All-told for the day, she carded a birdie in each round while tacking on 15 holes of bogey or higher.
One shot behind the senior in a tie for 19th was the duo of Maeve Cummins (Waringstown, Northern Ireland) and Alice Thomas (Mid Glamorgan, Wales), each going 16-over.
Like Frövenholt, Cummins also shot lower as the day went on, starting her day with an 82 in a round that saw her go without a single under-par hole. She instead was 10-over with nine bogeys and a double bogey on the par-4 4th hole. Her 78 in the second round brought one birdie with five bogeys and another double bogey.
As for Thomas, she was two shots higher in the afternoon compared to her morning outing on the links. She shot a 79 to start the day, her second-lowest single-round score of the season, with 11 holes for par and the remaining seven going down as bogeys. She went up to an 81 in the second round, firing two birdies in the back-nine that were overshadowed by her going over-par on nine other holes.
Hannah Holland (Sale Creek, Tenn.) checked in at 29th by the time she reached the clubhouse with a 17-over 161. She fired the most birdies for the team with four, three of those coming in the second round on exclusively par-5 holes, as she carded rounds of 80 and 81.
Ellie Haughton (Lincolnshire, England) faced an unfortunate scorecard issue in the first round that caused her to be disqualified from individual contention. She recorded a 76 in the afternoon.
No. 3/3 Limestone sits atop the leaderboard with a 30-over 606. It holds a 13-shot lead over the rest of the field with the next closest being No. 20 19 Wingate in second at 43-over and Lenoir-Rhyne at third at 49-over.
Wingate's Hailey McLaughlin leads the field with a 3-over 147 followed by Limestone's Ebba Hellman and Lenoir-Rhyne's Beatriz Espelosin trailing in second and third, respectively, at 5 and 7-over.
The tournament concludes on Tuesday with one final round of action. Carson-Newman heads to the links starting at 9:20 a.m. with staggered start times. Live scoring will once again be available through BirdieFire.
