The Badgers were ever so close to their breakout event at the Route 66 Invitational, from Oct. 13-14, as they took seventh out of the 14 schools after entering the final round in fourth place .
This was the last tournament of the Badgers’ fall schedule and their last opportunity to build some momentum heading into winter break. Rest assured, the Badgers will compete in seven events in the Spring, with their return to the green coming Feb. 9.
The lineup for the fall finale was the best the Badgers had to offer as they sent out redshirt junior Tammy Wu, senior Alexia Siehl, sophomores Izzi Stricker and Lauren Sammon, along with junior Kate Brody. The Badgers also had true freshman Grace Slocum competing as an individual.
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The Badgers played 36 holes Oct. 13, kicking off the first two rounds of the tournament. It was Wu who dazzled on day one, shooting rounds of two-under and one-under, placing her in a tie for third place with a total score of three-under.
She finished day one easily on pace for the best end of the season out of her teammates on the player’s leaderboard. The place to beat was ninth, also achieved by Wu, at the Schooner Fall Classic for the first top ten finish of Wu’s career.
Siehl also posted an impressive round one score, going one-over, while the sophomores matched each other with rounds of four-over. Disappointingly, Brody had her score scratched at five-over, which is surprising given last year’s Big Ten runner-up.
It was the second round where the Badgers rebounded. Stricker came back with a round of one-under, finding herself three-over after day one and in a tie for 15th. Siehl also posted another solid round of three-over, and, with her day one score of four-over she placed in the top 25.
It was Brody and Sammon that struggled during second round. Brody was able to score in round two with a round of five-over, putting her ten-over after day one and in a tie for 48th. Sammon was scratched after her round of six-over, also tying for 48th at ten-over.
As for Slocum, she stumbled in her first round, shooting eight-over. But, she fought hard to shoot a solid round of two-over in her second 18 finally scoring ten-over, coincidentally tying with Sammon and Brody for 48th place.
As a team, the Badgers found themselves tied for fourth after day one. They needed to fight hard in the third round to stay there, as the leaderboard was contested at the top.
Instead, the Badgers doubled their score from day one (seven-over in round one) with a round three team score of fourteen-over. This caused a fall from fourth to seventh.
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Brody did her part, as she shot one-over in the final round, finishing the tournament eleven-over par. She climbed nine spots on the player’s leaderboard, finishing in 39th. Brody, sadly, was the only player to make a climb in the third round.
Despite posting a solid three-round score of five-over, Stricker fell five spots finishing 20th after a final round of two-over. Wu also fell, moving down eight spots on the final day to an 11th place finish. Wu, like Stricker, was able to post a great three-round score of two-over.
Wu and Stricker had great tournaments. Wu had her second best finish of the year, while Stricker had her best. They did their part this week, unfortunately, it was the rest of the team that did not.
Siehl and Sammon both dropped 13 spots, both shooting six-over par. Arbitrarily, one their scores were scratched. Siehl’s three-round score of ten-over led to a 34th place finish, while Sammon’s sixteen-over score led to a 61st place finish.
The individual Slocum had a final round of four-over, dropping five spots and finishing 53rd. Slocum’s three day score of fourteen-over was fifth out of the six Badgers on the course, only beating out Sammon.
The Badgers played in five events this fall: they finished ninth at the Wolverine Invitational, seventh at the Badger Invitational, thirteenth at the Schooner Fall Classic, twelfth at the Illini Invitational, and lastly, seventh this week.
It seemed like every tournament they had a great chance to break out. Every week, someone shined through. There just wasn’t a single event where everyone had it going at the same time — so they never had a podium finish.
But, there shouldn’t be much reason for concern, it seems evident this team has the talent to remain competitive.
Now, it’s just time for a long hiatus. Hopefully the Badgers come back stronger than ever and take the spring season by storm.