By Hailey Amato
Staff Writer
Fourth out of 17 teams doesn’t sound bad, but it fell short of what the No. 15-ranked Pepperdine women’s golf team hoped.
The Waves plan to rebound from their performance at the Comcast/Dick McGuire Invitational last week in their next contest, the Stanford Invitational on Oct. 17 through 19, said the team.
“We’re looking for the same effort, but better scores,” sophomore Courtney Clark said. “We’d like to be a little more rewarded for our work.”
The Waves took fourth behind the solid play of sophomore Carolina Llano, who just was ranked as the nation’s top female golfer by the Golfstat Cup. Llano, coming off an individual medalist win in the previous tournament, paced the Waves with a third place finish at the Comcast/Dick McGuire Invitational.
She shot rounds of 73, 67 and 76 for a 6-over-par score of 216 on the 54-hole LLANO
course. She was one stroke shy of Oklahoma State’s Karin Sjodin who grabbed second.
After just tournaments, Llano is averaging 71.17 strokes a round, making her the only player in the nation’s with an under-par scoring average.
Junior Rachel Kyono and rookie Eileen Vargas ended up in a tie for 22nd, both carding a three-round score of 8-over-par 227 for Pepperdine.
“I was happy with my individual performance,” Kyono said. “I played really well the second day and hit well, which is something I have been struggling with. It was a good tournament for me.”
Clark shot a score of 245 to end the tournament tied for 73rd and junior Maria Cristina Arenas placed 77th with 246. Freshman Catherine Woods competed as an individual and shot a final-score of 263.
“I think we worked really hard and were all a little disappointed with our scores in the end,” Clark said. “We felt we were so close to something so much better.”
Host, University of New Mexico, took the tournament with a five-under-par total of 870. Pepperdine shot a final-round 23-over-par 315 to finish with a total of 910 for the three-day tournament.
“There was some tough competition,” Head Coach Laurie Gibbs said.
The nationally-ranked teams were in top form.
“It was predictable,” Clark said. “The people who should have been at top with us were. University of Arizona deserved to win by the way they played on their course. They carried themselves like champions and they played like champions.”
Putting was one of the weaker areas for the Waves at the tournament, according to Kyono.
“I think we could have done better,” Kyono said. “There were definitely some particular things that were problems for us out there. We’d been putting really well so far this season, but at this tournament the green was really big and fast. We hit the ball well, but we just couldn’t putt.”
Teammates agreed that it didn’t feel like things were quite clicking for the Waves.
“I just didn’t feel like I performed at all,” Clark said. “I went out ready every day and ended up kicking myself in the butt when the day was over.”
The Waves have about three weeks of rest before they, once again, head out to prove the dominance of Pepperdine women’s golf.
“We should do well,” Kyono said. “We have a couple of weeks to tune up and we’ll be ready to play.”
Clark agrees that this team is only just beginning the great season that is ahead.
“It just didn’t all come together for us last week and that’s too bad,” Clark said. “It’s also very exciting because it means it can all come together for us in soon”
October 02, 2003