May 20, 2011
BRYAN, Texas - A nearly two-hour delay because of lightning prevented the completion of the third round of the 2011 NCAA Women's Golf Championships on Friday in Bryan, Texas. After returning to the course after evacuation, the fourth-ranked Purdue women's golf team moved to the top of the leaderboard but by the time play was suspended for darkness at approximately 9:15 p.m. ET, UCLA had regained the lead by six strokes.
LSU and Virginia currently are tied for third, seven strokes behind Purdue. Virginia (291-300-299=890) completed round three while LSU is paired with Purdue and UCLA and will complete the round in the morning.
Six teams were on the course when play was suspended - California, Florida and Tennessee along with LSU, Purdue and UCLA. These teams will finish the third round starting at 8:30 a.m. ET Saturday morning and then tee off in round four later in the day.
The teams that are at the bottom of the leaderboard will begin round four starting with tee times at 9:30 a.m. ET. Stanford, Washington and Ohio State will tee off starting at 9:30 a.m. from hole No. 1 while Coastal Carolina, UC Davis and Notre Dame will tee off from hole No. 10 starting at 9:30 a.m. The six individuals competing will tee off at 10:25 a.m.
The Boilermakers came out of the weather delay strong with six birdies on holes No. 7, 8 and 9, four of them on hole No. 8. But then Purdue committed two bogeys on hole No. 13, three bogeys on No. 14 and two double bogeys and a single bogey on No. 15 to relinquish the lead.
"I felt like we were in good shape coming in to hole No. 14," head coach Devon Brouse said. "The scoreboard keeper at No. 14 was joking that he was tired of moving the name plates for us and UCLA around. Then we had three bogeys on No. 14 and more bogeys on 15, so 14 and 15 hurt us. We went from being right there and looking for a much better chance on Saturday to being six back. But there is a lot of golf left. We have a good team and I think they will respond and hopefully come out ready to play tomorrow."
Laura Gonzalez-Escallon is one-under par through 15 holes and is tied for fifth at even par for the tournament. Numa Gulyanamitta was in second place coming into Friday's round, but is at five-over par through 14 holes and a cumulative two-over par with four holes to play in the third round. She is currently tied for 12th.
Maude-Aimee LeBlanc is three over par through 15 and was in a tie for 42nd place at nine over when play was suspended. Paula Reto is four-over par through 16 holes and tied for 58th at 11-over par. Thea Hoffmeister has just one hole to play in the third round and when play resumes will be two-over par for the round and 13-over par total, placing her tied for 68th.
UCLA's Tiffany Lua had a hole-in-one on the par-three 11th hole and is atop the leaderboard with four holes remaining.
Coastal Carolina's Courtney Boe also had an ace on the 11th hole and Virginia's Brittany Altomare made a hole-in-one on No. 16.
Current standings and live scoring is available on ncaa.com and a live video feed of action from holes 16, 17 and 18 will be available on ncaa.com starting at 3 p.m. ET. Finals results along with a recap will be posted to purduesports.com.