Illinois women’s golf finishes fifth at last tournament of fall
October 28, 2015
The University of Illinois women’s golf team ended its fall season with a fifth-place finish at the Palmetto Intercollegiate, after shooting a 23-over 887.
Jan Prapassarangkul led the Illini in third place at 1-over. With a tournament-best 44 pars, it was Prapassarangkul’s best finish since finishing third at the Westbrook Invitational Feb. 22-23.
“Jan had a great tournament with solid play,” head coach Renee Slone said. “She took a different mental approach to this event, which proved to be beneficial, and we are hoping this was turning point for her.”
Bing Singhsumalee finished at 4-over in 15th place, while Grace Park trailed Singhsumalee by 15 positions and five strokes.
Stephanie Miller and Dana Gattone tied for 45th place after shooting 12-over.
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Illinois had the most pars (185) in the tournament, helped by Prapassarangkul’s 44. The team finished with the third-most birdies (30) in the tournament.
“We have been par-making machines,” Slone said. “With that, however, has come a decreased number of birdies. We will be working on getting the ball closer to the hole on our approach in combination with our putting in an effort to post more birdies.”
The Illini opened the tournament at 7:30 a.m. Sunday to avoid possible inclement weather. They tied for fourth place at 2-over 290 that round— their second-best round in the season.
Prapassarangkul had 16 pars in the first round to finish three strokes behind then-leader Nadine White from Campbell, who stood at 5-under.
Illinois went 12-over 300 in the second round. It moved into third, despite 14 bogies, six double bogies and one triple bogie in the round. The team had 13 bogies and four double bogies in the final round to drop two positions.
“We posted a solid round on the first day; struggled a bit to open the second round but found a way to right our ship; and then had the same problem in round three, which we couldn’t quite work back from,” Slone said.
Even then, the Illini head into the offseason with their second-best finish of the season and best since the first tournament of the fall.
“We will evaluate this during the winter, as we have responded well in some instances to being at the top of the leaderboard while at other times we haven’t done so,” Slone said. “We will be working on the mental and emotional aspects of this during the offseason.”
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