May 23, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Auburn women's golf team is tied for ninth after one round of the 2006 NCAA Championship, held May 23-26, at the par 72, 6,203-yard Scarlet Course at The Ohio State University Golf Club.
The Tigers finished the day with a 13-over 301 in ninth place. Auburn stayed solid most of the day, but its five golfers were a combined 8-over on the final two holes. At the end of day one, the Tigers are just 10 strokes out of first place with three rounds remaining.
"We were in position to play a fair round today, but we just didn't close it out well," Auburn head coach Kim Evans said. "The last two holes hurt us. We did the right things today, but we didn't finish out. We still have three days of competition though so a lot can happen in that time."
Southern California led all teams with a 3-over 291, followed by Arizona State in second at 4-over (292), Florida in third at 5-over (293), Arizona in fourth at 8-over (296), Wake Forest and Duke are tied for fifth carding a 9-over (297), LSU is seventh at 10-over (298), Arkansas is eighth at 11-over and Auburn is tied for ninth with UCLA, Purdue and Pepperdine at 13-over.
Auburn's Maria Martinez led the team with a 1-over 73, which tied her for 10th place overall. Martinez was followed by Abigale Schepperle at 2-over 74 (21st place), Nicole Hage and Margaret Shirley each finished the day at 5-over 77 (70th place) and Jessica Lovell rounded out the day for Auburn at 8-over 80 (107th).
The four-day tournament will continue through Friday with live scoring on www.golfstat.com and daily recaps on the Tigers at www.auburntigers.com. Auburn, who again is matched up with Texas A&M and UNLV, is set to tee off the second round Tuesday afternoon with Lovell beginning at 12:10 p.m. CT.