After digging early holes too big to climb out of in the first two fall tournaments, the Kentucky women’s golf team had one mindset for the 48th annual Liz Murphey Fall Collegiate Classic: Get off to a better start and don’t take yourself out of the competition after the first day.
While there are still areas to clean up, most notably on the greens, the Wildcats are in great position to make some noise this weekend in Athens, Georgia.
With another splendid performance by freshman Laney Frye and an impressive UK debut from sophomore transfer María Villanueva Aperribay, Kentucky is tied for seventh place at 8-over par in a crowded field at the UGA Golf Course (par 72, 6,302 yards).
Tournament host Georgia leads the 12-team, SEC-only field at even par, but the Wildcats are just four shots out of second place.
“This UGA Golf Course is a good test of everyone’s games,” UK head coach Golda Borst said. “I am encouraged by what I saw as we hit more greens today than in previous rounds and they created more opportunities for themselves. Unfortunately, the putts didn’t drop, but I was happy to see our team adjusting to the conditions and staying committed to our process goals.”
Firmly in the mix heading into what should be a sun-soaked weekend, Kentucky will begin teeing off for its second round as early as 8:34 a.m. on Saturday. Live scoring will continue to be available at Golfstat.com.
UK’s 296 was not the team’s best score of the season, but it was a much-needed improvement from its previous two first-round scores of 316 and 302 at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational and The Ally, respectively. Those two opening scores put the Wildcats too far behind to truly content in the season’s first two events.
With Friday’s positive start, Kentucky will now look to climb up a leaderboard that features some of the very best in golf. Eight teams entered the tournament in the top 15 of Golfweek’s latest rankings.
UK has the horses to make a run, especially with what Frye and Villanueva Aperribay showed on the first day.
Frye, who impressed in her college debut in early October by tying for sixth and finishing ahead of all other freshman competitors at the BCI, fired a 1-under-par 71 and is just two shots back of the co-leaders, Mikayla Bardwell of Tennessee and Isabella Holpfer and Carolina Craig from Georgia. It was Frye’s fourth round of par or better this season and her third under par. All three of the rounds in red have been in the tournaments’ opening 18 holes.
The Lexington native and the 2018 Kentucky High School Athletic Association state champion carded three birdies with just two bogeys. Twice Frye got as low as 2-under par.
Villanueva Aperribay, who UK is counting on to not only add depth to an already talented team but also make an immediate impact after transferring from Augusta, showed her ability in Friday’s first round. Highlighted by an eagle on the par-4 second hole (she started on the back nine), Villanueva Aperribay is at 1-over par and tied for 12th.
At Augusta last season, Villanueva Aperribay recorded a 73.6 stroke average and finished in the top 25 in four of her six events with 13 of her 18 rounds at 74 or lower, including five rounds of par or better.
Senior Rikke Svejgård Nielsen was one of the Wildcats who was plagued by slow starts in the first two tournaments. She got off to a much better start Friday with a 3-over par 75 and is tied for 28th. Coupled with the fact that Svejgård Nielsen has gotten better as the rounds have rolled on in the previous two events, she has her eyes set on the leaderboard heading into the weekend.
Sophomore Jensen Castle, the school’s single-season stroke average record holder, is accustomed to seeing herself on that leaderboard, but she will have work to do to get there after opening with a 5-over-par 77. Castle is tied for 46th after a rare round without a birdie.
The same could be said for fellow sophomore Marissa Wenzler. She was also unable to put a circle on the scorecard in the first round and is one stroke behind Castle at 6-over par. Her 78 put her in a tie for 51st.
The Liz Murphey Fall Collegiate Classic is the third and final fall tournament for the Wildcats. The conference-only competition, a requirement by the Southeastern Conference to keep teams safe during the COVID-19 pandemic this fall, has been difficult, but UK is hoping for better results after placing eighth and 12th in the first two events. The Wildcats entered the season with high expectations after returning the bulk of the breakthrough 2019-20 team that won two championships, placed second in another, set team and individual scoring records, and posted 10 top-10 and 20 top-20 individual showings a season ago.
The Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic originally began in 1973 as the Georgia Invitational and was contested as the Women’s Southern Intercollegiates from 1977-94. In 1995, the tourney was renamed in honor of Liz Murphey, UGA’s Hall of Fame golf coach and longtime senior woman administrator.
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