Individual First Day Results |
Team First Day Result
STEVENS POINT (September 30, 2017) - There is a new look to Stevens Point CC and the UW-Stout women's golf team liked what it saw Saturday of the re-designed layout at the Mad-Dawg Invitational.
Senior
Rachel Hernandez shot 78 and sophomore
Alexa Filipiak shot 79 as the Blue Devils fired a 325 and took a 12-stroke lead over UW-Whitewater and UW-Oshkosh. UW-Eau Claire is another shot back in fourth place with a 338 entering Sunday's final round.
Stout also counted a pair of 84s from junior
Marie Allo and sophomore
Trystin Kluess. The Blue Devils threw out an 87 from sophomore
Madison McCambridge.
"First off, the golf course looks really different," Stout coach
Howie Samb said of Stevens Point CC, which several years ago lost nearly 2,000 of its towering pine trees due to a chemical used for broadleaf weed control and was closed most of last season. "It kind of has a Pinehurst look and feel to it and, when it fully matures, it will be awesome. The waste bunkers and greenside bunkers are very deep and very severe, but overall a very tough, but fair test."
Hernandez, who finished second at last year's WIAC Championship, trails only defending WIAC champion Ashley Hofmeister of UW-Whitewater, who shot 76. Hernandez, who birdied two of her first three holes, finished with three birdies, four bogeys and two double-bogeys on the day.
Filipiak played her first six holes in even-par and, after a double-bogey at No. 2 and four straight bogeys at Nos. 5 through 8 played her final five holes in even-par as well. She had two birdies.
"Rachel hit it really well for the most part," Samb said. "She has really matured as a golfer and, even when she doesn't have her 'A' game, she still figures out how to get it around and shoot a good number. … Alexa is really starting to come into her own. Her ball-striking and putting have greatly improved, which has done wonders for her confidence. She has that little bounce in her step, again, which is great to see. She has really worked hard to turn things around and I'm very proud of her."
Kluess fought back from a tough stretch in the middle of her round where she double-bogeyed four holes in a five-hole stretch. She played her final seven holes in even-par thanks to birdies at Nos. 6 and 12, two of three birdies she made on the day.
"Trystin has a bunch of low scores waiting to happen," Samb said. "She is really turning into an excellent, consistent ball-striker. And the improvement in her short game from early in her freshman year to now is the greatest turn-around I've ever seen."
Allo started with a birdie on No. 14, but two tough stretches -- she played Nos. 16 through 2 in 6-over and Nos. 6 through 11 in 5-over -- stalled her momentum. Samb said McCambridge is "fighting a lot of body movement and sway in her swing" of late, which has hurt her scores.
"She is also trying too hard and being way too hard on herself," Samb said. "She is such a talented golfer. The minute we can get her confidence back and turn in a good round she could really take off."
Junior
Hannah Baker, competing as an individual, shot a 91. It was her first competition since the UW-River Falls triangular at the start of the season and Samb praised her ball-striking and putting.
The final round will start Sunday at 9 a.m.
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