The Gators women’s golf team shot a 12-over-par round on Friday,
putting them in 15th place at the Liz Murphy Invitational.
In a unique tournament format where scores are tallied on each
individual hole, Florida struggled.
Instead of counting scores of the four best rounds for every team,
all five members play together and count the top four scores on
every hole toward the team’s total.
UF’s best performance Friday came from Isabelle Lendl, who shot a
1-over 73. Dowling credited Lendl’s performance to a ritual she
used in her practice round in which she placed three balls in the
center of each green and putting them toward different parts of the
green. Downing says that the ritual gave Lendl a better feel for
the speed and slope of the greens and led to an impressive putting
performance on Friday.
Lendl is currently tied for eighth as an individual.
Evan Jensen also played a solid round after shooting a 2-over 74,
putting her in a tie for 12th. Jensen was on her way to an
under-par round before a stretch of three bogeys in four holes set
her back.
Sophomore Mia Piccio, the team’s most consistent performer
throughout the season, shot a disappointing 7-over 79. After
carding a birdie on her opening hole, she struggled for the rest of
her round, including a streak of five straight bogeys. Dowling
admitted it was a very uncharacteristic performance from her top
player, blaming the five-bogey streak on a combination of “poor
ball-striking and missing some short putts.”
Nearly all five Florida golfers struggled on holes 1 through 4,
climaxing with a 3-over score on the fourth hole alone, but Dowling
doesn’t believe the Gator’s poor scoring can be blamed on the
playing format.
“Those are all hard holes,” said Dowling, “they likely would have
scored that way if they were playing by themselves.”
