Facing one of the toughest fields in college golf this season, the Kentucky women’s golf team knew it would have to be on top of its game this weekend to compete with the nation’s best.
The Wildcats answered the challenge in the first round of the Clemson Invitational at Lake Keowee on Friday with one of their most complete performances of the season.
UK fired a 3-over-par 291 to begin this weekend’s 54-hole tournament, tying its best round of the spring and fourth lowest in 2018-19. Junior Sarah Shipley led the way with a 1-under-par 71, but four Wildcats recorded scores of 74 or better to keep Kentucky in the mix in a deep and talented field at the Reserve at Lake Keowee (par 72, 6,260 yards).
Kentucky is in a tie for 10th place heading into Monday’s second round but ahead of three top-50 teams and two top-20 teams. The Wildcats are just eight shots removed from third place.
No. 7 Vanderbilt and No. 14 Auburn lead the 18-team field at 10-under par. Auburn’s Julie McCarthy tops the individual leaderboard at 6-under par.
Shipley is among 21 players in red numbers after turning in a clean scorecard. She parred all but one hole Sunday, the lone outlier a birdie on the par-3 17th hole.
It marked Shipley’s third round of par or better this season and continues her upward trajectory heading into the postseason. She was the Wildcats’ top finisher a week ago at the Bryan National Collegiate, where she tied for 33rd.
Shipley has plenty of help from her teammates this weekend with three other Wildcats within three shots of her.
Seniors Leonie Bettel and Claire Carlin are tied for 38th after tournament-opening 73s. Both took different paths to get there.
Bettel, a three-time champion in 2018-19, got off to a rough start with bogeys on four of her first five holes, but she battled back by going 3-under par the rest of the day.
Carlin was keeping pace with Shipley for most of the day at 1-under par. She birdied No. 14, her fifth hole of the day, and recorded pars everywhere else until a double bogey on No. 7, her third-to-last hole of the round.
Sophomore Rikke Svejgård Nielsen is just a shot behind Bettel and Carlin with a 74, which included two birdies.
Junior Josephine Chang, who last week tied for second place at the Colonel Classic with a career-low score of 216, is tied for 90th at 7-over par.
The Clemson Invitational will resume Monday at 8:30 a.m. with a shotgun start. Live scoring will continue to be available at GolfStat.com.
This week’s tournament in Sunset, South Carolina, marks the final regular-season tournament of the season for the Wildcats. After the Clemson Invitational, UK will turn its focus on the postseason and the Southeastern Conference Championship, which will take place April 17-21 in Birmingham, Alabama.
This week’s setup is arguably the toughest competition Kentucky has seen all season. An 18-team field stocked full of SEC, Big 10 and Atlantic Coast Conference schools features 10 teams in the top 50 of Golfstat’s latest rankings, including five teams in the top 25 and two in the top 10.
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