Oct. 15, 2000
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – It was a record-setting day for Notre Dame freshman Rebecca Rogers and the Irish women’s golf team on Sunday at Warren Golf Course, as both posted comfortable first-place finishes at the Notre Dame Invitational.
Rogers is the sixth Irish women’s golfer to win an intercollegiate event in the program’s 12-year history and is the first to do so since the spring of 1997 (when then-junior Tracy Melby won the 73-player Illinois Spring Classic). The last time a Notre Dame freshman won a women’s golf intercollegiate tournament was the fall of 1989, when Kathy Phares won the 43-player Indianapolis Invitational and Cappy Mack finished atop the 25-player Franklin Invitational.
Rogers’-whose solid rookie season includes the team’s second-best stroke average (79.67, just behind senior Shane Smith’s 79.33)-closed with a 74 on the par-72, 5,955-yard layout for a 225 total and the second-best 54-hole tournament score in Notre Dame women’s golf history, just one stroke shy of Alicia Murray’s seven-year-old record (Rogers posted rounds of 70-81 on Saturday). Illinois State’s Nicole Foy (75-81-77-233) finished a distant second in the 67-player field, eight shots off the pace.
Notre Dame closed with a 312 for a 935 total and a 30-stroke cushion over runner-up Princeton (315-965) in the 10-team field.
Irish sophomore Terri Taibl had an impressive debut showing for the 2000 fall season, closing with a 77 for a 237 and a share of fifth. Junior Kristin McMurtrie (83-238) and Smith (81-239) also posted top-10 finishes while freshmen Shannon Byrne (80-244) and Jeanne Murphy (88-266) rounded out the Notre Dame squad in the play-six, count-four format.
Seven other Irish players competed as individual entrants, with solid showings by sophomore Priscilla Ro (79-240), senior Danielle Villarosa (81-243), sophomore Shelby Strong (82-247) and junior Lauren Fuchs (85-252). Sophomores Nina Siggins (89-254) and Michelle Halverson (88-265) also competed as individuals, as did junior Jenny Lynch (91-270).
NOTES: Rogers’ opening 70 is the best intercollegiate round in ND history, besting the 71 posted by three previous golfers (Rogers’ -2 round ranks third all-time in relation to par) … Murray’s ND record 54-hole effort came at the 1993-94 Indiana Invitational (224, +11) … Rogers nine-over 54-hole total also ranks 2nd in the ND record book, in relation to par (behind Mary Klein’s eight-over 230 at the 1997-98 Indiana Invitational) … the team title was the fifth in Irish women’s golf history and the second in the last two years … ND’s 304 opening round ranks 4th in ND history and is best by an Irish squad since 1997-98 (that team turned in rounds of 295, 302 and 303) … that +16 team round ranks sixth in the ND record book, in relation to par … ND’s 943 total blew away the previous team record for low 54-hole score (943 at the 1997-98 Kentucky Invitational) … the +71 team total checks in as the program’s 2nd-best 54-hole score in relation to par (the ’97-’98 team totaled a 65-over 953 at the Indiana Invitational).