May 21, 2002
AUBURN, Wash. - The Purdue women's golf team is in 18th place after the first round of the 2002 NCAA Women's Golf Championships in Auburn, Wash.
The Boilermakers fired a first-round 304 and are 10 strokes out of second place. Arizona finished the first day as the only team under par after carding a three-under 285. Purdue is the third-highest placing team in the Big Ten after the first round. It trails Ohio State (9th) and Michigan (13th).
"Well, we didn't play as well as I would have liked us to play," said coach Devon Brouse. "We had some costly holes that really hurt our scores. The good thing is that we get to go back on the course first thing tomorrow morning."
Junior Heather Zielinski is currently tied for 30th after carding a two-over 74. Senior Caroline Laurens also finished two-over and tied for 30th. Laurens fired a one-under par 35 on her final nine holes.
Senior Christy Rittenhouse and junior Kari Damron fired a pair of six-over par 78s and currently are both tied for 84th.
Sophomore Beth Hermes carded a first-round 79 despite having four birdies on the day. She is tied for 94th overall.
"There are a lot of teams bunched up right now," said Brouse. "If we go out tomorrow and shoot a low score we'll be right back in the thick of it."
This is the third-straight season that the Boilermakers have advanced to the NCAA Championships. The Boilermakers finished 20th at the 2001 NCAA Championships.
The Boilermakers will tee off in the second round at 8:50 a.m. PST. Live scoring is provided by www.golfstat.com. A link is provided on the main page of www.purduesports.com.
The event is being held at the 6273-yard, par-72 Washington National Golf Club. The second round begins on Wednesday at 8 a.m. PST. The event will conclude on Friday.
Place Individual 1st Rd. 2nd Rd. 3rd Rd. 4th Rd. Total T-30 Caroline Laurens 74 74 +2T-30 Heather Zielinski 74 74 +2T-84 Kari Damron 78 78 +6T-84 Christy Rittenhouse 78 78 +6T-94 Beth Hermes 79 79 +7
Place Team 1st Rd. 2nd Rd. 3rd Rd. Total 1st Arizona 285 285 -32nd Duke 294 294 +6 Georgia 294 294 +64th Auburn 298 298 +10 California 298 298 +10 Florida 298 298 +10 South Carolina 298 298 +10 Wake Forest 298 298 +109th Ohio State 299 299 +11 Oklahoma 299 299 +11 Oklahoma State 299 299 +11 Stanford 299 299 +1113th Arizona State 301 301 +13 Michigan 301 301 +13 Pepperdine 301 301 +1316th Tulsa 302 302 +14 Washington 302 302 +1418th Purdue 304 304 +1619th Michigan State 305 305 +17 Texas 305 305 +1721st USC 307 307 +1922nd Vanderbilt 311 311 +2323rd South Florida 313 313 +2524th UCLA 314 314 +26