NEW ORLEANS – The No. 11 Texas A&M women’s golf team finished its first round of the spring season tied for seventh place in the 2012 Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate Golf Championship at the English Turn Golf & Country Club on Sunday.
The Aggies played with temperatures in the mid-50s and 9-11 mph winds and carded a 12-over 300. A&M trails the leader, No. 4 USC, which shot a 5-over 293, by only seven strokes. No. 20 Oregon is second with 294 (+6), followed by No. 13 Duke (295), No. 17 Colorado and No. 19 Baylor (297) and Tulsa (299). Auburn and Florida sit tied with the Aggies.
Texas A&M was led by junior Susy Grunden, sophomore Katerina Ruzickova and freshman Patricia Garcia who each shot 2-over 74s and are tied for 14th.
“I feel like we were tournament rusty today,” said A&M head coach Trelle McCombs. “I’m proud of Susy for staying in there and really competing for us. Patricia got off to a little rocky start, but did what she does and just kept fighting throughout the round. As a team, we just need to clean up a few things and put it all together. I’m excited to see what we can do tomorrow. Only being seven shots back and with two rounds to go, we can just keep chipping away and see what happens.”
Juniors Mary Michael Maggio and Sarah Beth Davis turned in 6-over 78s and are tied for 57th. Natalie Reeves, who is competing as an individual is tied for 67th with an 8-over 80.
Oregon’s Cali Hipp took the early lead individually with a 3-under 69.
The Aggies begin the second round of the tournament Monday at 8 a.m. and tee off from the first tee. They play beside future SEC opponents Auburn and Florida.
Live scoring of the 2012 Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate Golf Championship is available on Golfstat.com. Also follow the Aggies with periodical updates on Twitter @Aggiewomensgolf.
