Division III Midwest Classic
LAKE CITY, Minn. (September 16, 2017) - There was a picture floating around social media earlier this week of Â
Trystin Kluess wearing a college football helmet on display at Whitetail Golf Course in Colfax, the home course for the UW-Stout women's golf team.
It turned out to be sign of things to come for the Blue Devils sophomore.
Kluess hit The Jewel Golf Course with an all-out blitz Saturday, firing a career-low 74 from the No. 5 position in the opening round of the Division III Classic and helping Stout shoot a 315, good for second place in the 16-team field, just two shots behind host Carleton.
The Blue Devils also counted a pair of 80s from senior
Rachel Hernandez and junior
Marie Allo as well as an 81 from sophomore
Alexa Filipiak. They threw out
Madison McCambridge's 85.
"Kind of a different way to shoot 315, but it speaks to the depth of our team, which we've been working on for a couple of years now," Stout coach
Howie Samb said, noting that hs top two golfers -- Hernandez (42) and McCambridge (44) -- struggled on the front nine. "It's encouraging when your Nos. 1 and 2 and struggling and the rest of the team is there to pick them up."
Kluess, the first out for the Blue Devils, set a tone early.
She parred her first six holes while many golfers in the field were having a tough go of it on the Hale Irwin-designed layout before hitting her first bump in the road and finishing bogey-birdie- triple-bogey to shoot 39 on the front. She birdied No. 10 starting the back and then parred her final eight holes to shoot 35 on the back and shave three shots off her collegiate career-best, which she recorded last week with her final-round 77 at the Wartburg Fall Invitational in Iowa.
"The story of the day, and back to Sunday's round last week, is Trystin's game," Samb said. "She played unbelievable (Saturday). She stuck to her game plan, focused on tempo, alignment and jump concentrated on hitting the ball solid. And it turned into a 74."
According to Samb, Kluess' troubles on No. 9 were not all her own doing. Overnight rain left the sand thin and wet and Kluess, who left her approach to the par-4 in the greenside trap, left her third shot in the bunker, barely got her fourth out, chipped on and two-putted for a 7.
"I just told her she was playing great and to just forget about it and keep going," Samb said. "She responded with a birde on (No.) 10 and eight straight pars."
Hernandez and Allo both finished on a positive note -- Hernandez with a scrambling par and Allo with a birdie. Filipiak bogeyed No. 18 for an 80, her second-best round of the fall. McCambridge birdied her final hole after struggling with iron play and on and around the green, Samb said.
"All said, we are in the final pairing again (Sunday)," Samb said. "Each time we are able to achieve this, we are creating experiences that we can't duplicate in practice."
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