Oct. 15, 2002
Wichita, Kan. – The Notre Dame women’s golf team closed out the Marilyn Smith/Sunflowe Invitational Tuesday afternoon by firing a final round total of 320 to tie the Irish for seventh place with Southern Methodist University in the 17-team field. Notre Dame (307-308-320) finished the 54-hole tournament with a 935 total that put the Irish 32 strokes behind tournament team champion Kansas State.
Kansas State (304-299-300) led after two rounds and closed the tournament with Tuesday’s best round, a 12-over par 300, to give the Wildcats a 903 total and a seven-stroke win over Texas-El Paso. UTEP (309-295-306) trailed by one after 36 holes, but shot a 306 on Tuesday to finish with a 910 at the par 72, 5,928-yard Willowbend Golf Club.
Kansas (309-303-312) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (310-304-310) tied for third with 924 totals and Illinois State (303-304-324) rounded out the top five with a 931.
Individually, North Texas’ Randi Gauthier (70-74-78) and Kansas State’s Christine Boucher (74-73-75) tied for first with 222 totals, but Gauthier won in a playoff. Gauthier started the day with a six-stroke lead over Boucher, but fired a final round of six-over par 78 to Boucher’s 75 to cause the playoff. Southern Methodist’s Erin Simmons came from 14th-place to finish third, two strokes behind the leaders with a 224. Simmons, who opened with rounds of 77-75, had the best round of the day with an even-par 72 to make the jump in the standings.
Miranda Smith (77-74-74) of Kansas State, Anne Mallory (70-78-77) of UTEP and Amy Lee (77-73-75) of Wichita State finished in a three-way tie for fourth with 225 to round out the top six golfers in the field of 92.
Notre Dame’s Sarah Bassett (Fr., Spokane, Wash.), who started the day tied for fifth struggled with a nine-over par 81 to fall into a seven-way tie for 20th with a 231. Bassett shot 76-74 on Monday for a 150 that had her just six strokes off the lead after 36 holes. One of the golfers in the seven-way tie for 20th was teammate Karen Lotta (So., Los Angeles, Calif.) who had a very consistent tournament, firing three consecutive rounds of 77 for her 231.
Freshman Katie Brophy (Spokane, Wash.) was two shots behind Lotta and Bassett in a tie for 28th after shooting rounds of 77, 76 and 80 for a 233 mark.
Shannon Byrne (Jr., Arlington Heights, Ill.) finished in a tie for 50th with a 240 (77-81-82) and Rebecca Rogers (Jr., Alpharetta, Ga.) was 76th with a 249 (81-83-85).
The Irish return to action next week when they play host to 10 teams at the adidas Fall Invitational that will be held in Port St. Lucie, Fla., on Mon.-Tues., Oct. 21-22. The tournament will be played on the par 72, 5,985-yard Dye Course at the PGA Village with a shotgun start each morning at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).
FINAL TEAM RESULTS (54-hole totals): 1. Kansas State 304-299-300-903; 2. Texas-El Paso 309-295-306-910; t3. Kansas 309-303-312-924; Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 310-304-310-934; 5. Illinois State 303-304-324-931; 6. North Texas 309-310-314-933; t7. Notre Dame 307-308-320-935; Southern Methodist 311-310-621; 9. Oral Roberts 303-318-315-936; 10. Arkansas-Little Rock 316-303-319-938; 11. Minnesota 319-310-315-944; 12. Wichita State 315-315-320-950; 13. Northern Iowa 323-316-314-953; 14. Missouri-Kansas City 321-319-326-966; 15. NE Oklahoma State 328-317-328-973; 16. SW Missouri State 343-319-327-989; 17. Creighton 337-327-334-998.
TOP 10 INDIVIDUALS (of 92): 1. Randi Gauthier (No. Texas) 70-74-78-222; 2. Christine Boucher (Kansas State) 74-73-75-222; 3. Erin Simmons (SMU); t4. Anne Mallory (UTEP) 70-78-77-225; Miranda Smith (Kansas State) 77-74-74-225; Amy Lee (Wichita State) 77-73-75-225; 7. Heather Rose (Kansas) 77-74-75-226; t8. Linda Chen (UTEP) 80-73-75-228; Ashlie Simmons (Tex. A&M-CC) 75-75-78-228; Leslie Hawley (UTEP) 78-74-76-228; Elise Carpentier (Kansas State) 80-75-73-228; Alessandra Perez (Tex. A&M-CC) 79-73-76-228; Jennifer Bawanan (Kansas) 78-74-76-228.
NOTRE DAME INDIVIDUALS (of 92): t20. Sarah Bassett 76-74-81-231; t20. Karen Lotta 77-77-77-231; t28. Katie Brophy 77-76-80-233; t50. Shannon Byrne 77-81-82-240; 76. Rebecca Rogers 81-83-85-249.