Tulane Tied For 17th In Day One Of NCAA Women's Golf Championship

Alison Walshe

Sophomore Alison Walshe fired a three-over par 74 and the Green Wave carded a 305 as the Tulane University women's golf team completed day one of the 2005 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship tied for 17th at the par-71, 6,321-yard Sunriver Resort.

Competing in the first NCAA Championship in program history, the Green Wave finished the first round of the 72-hole event tied with Brigham Young and Texas A&M, and just five strokes behind Stanford and Tennessee, which went into the clubhouse tied for 10th.

"I think we had a case of nerves early on, but I am proud of the way we settled down and played really good golf on the back nine," head coach Sue Bower said. "This is a 72-hole event, so there is still a lot of golf to be played and anything can happen.

"Our goal coming into the tournament was to finish in the Top 10. We're only five strokes away from that goal right now, and if we can play the rest of the week with the same focus and intensity that we played on the back nine today, we're going to be just fine."

The Green Wave got off to a rocky start as the five participants were a combined 18 shots over par after eight holes, but sophomore Mary Ellen Jacobs shot even par the rest of the way while Walshe shot a one-under par 35 on the back nine. Walshe finished the day tied for 35th, and Jacobs went in with a five-over par 76 to finish round one tied for 57th.

Junior Liliana Alvarez had Tulane's best start with a two-over 37 on the front nine, but a double-bogey on 10 and bogeys on the next two holes pushed her score to six-over. She recovered to birdie 13 and shoot even-par the rest of the way to finish the day tied for 57th with a five-over par 76.

Seniors Lindsay Hulwick and Alexis Wooster round out the Tulane scorers with a 79 and an 81 to finish tied for 98th and tied for 123rd, respectively.

Southern Cal holds the day-one lead with a three-over par 287, and the Women of Troy hold a one-stroke lead over UCLA (288) and a three-stroke advantage over third-placed Auburn (290). Pepperdine's Carolina Llano holds the individual lead with a two-under par 69, while Dewi Schreefel of USC is one stroke back with a one-under 70.

Michigan State's Sara Brown, UCLA's Amie Cochran and Charlotte Mayorkas, Stanford's Wendra Liang, Arkansas' Amanda McCurdy, Texas A&M's Nicole Melton, LSU's Brooke Shelton, Oklahoma State's Karin Sjodin and Tennessee's Marci Turner all finished the first round tied for third with even-par 71s.

The 24-team, six-individual field will continue championship play with the second round on Wednesday with the first teams teeing off at 11:00 a.m. (CDT). The NCAA Championship continues on Thursday with another 18 holes before concluding on Friday with the final round. Golf fans can follow all the action live on the internet at www.golfstat.com.

Team Scores: 1. Southern Cal 287 (+3); 2. UCLA 288 (+4); 3. Auburn 290 (+6); 4. Pepperdine 291 (+7); T5. Duke, Washington 292 (+8); 7. California 295 (+11); 8. Arkansas 296 (+12); 9. Oklahoma State 298 (+14); T10. Stanford, Tennessee 300 (+16); T12. Florida, Ohio State 301 (+17); 14. Arizona State 303 (+19); T15. Michigan State, Virginia 304 (+20); T17. Tulane, Brigham Young, Texas A&M 305 (+21); T20. Missouri, Furman, Tulsa 307 (+23); 23. Purdue 309 (+25); 24. UC Irvine 311 (+27).

Top Individual Scores: Carolina Llano (Pepperdine) 69 (-2); 2. Dewi Schreefel (Southern Cal) 70 (-1); T3. Sara Brown (Michigan State), Amie Cochran (UCLA), Wendra Liang (Stanford), Charlotte Mayorkas (UCLA), Amanda McCurdy (Arkansas), Nicole Melton (Texas A&M), Brooke Shelton (LSU), Karin Sjodin (Oklahoma State), Marci Turner (Tennessee) 71 (E).

Tulane Individual Scores: T35. Alison Walshe 74 (+3); T57. Mary Ellen Jacobs, Liliana Alvarez 76 (+5); T98. Lindsay Hulwick 79 (+8); T123. Alexis Wooster 81 (+10).