The Illinois women’s golf team concluded their own invitational with a tie at sixth place this week, making it the first time this year where they did not place in the top five.  The Illini invitational was held at the 72-hole Medinah Country Club where Georgia and Louisville both scored 849 points for the tie at first place. Both Kent State and Illinois were finished with 858 points behind Georgia, Purdue, Louisville, LSU, AND San Jose State

 This 15-team tournament is just the second last one of the Illinois seasons before their next invitational at the Columbia Classic in February. Illinois racked up a total of 858 points after three rounds, despite the rain preventing them to play for a short period of time on Monday morning.

Illinois Senior Crystal Wang lead the team in positions taking a 13th place tie in the last round with two scores over 70 in the final two rounds.   Illinois spent the first round of the event, hovering between second and third before receiving fourth-place finish at the end of the day, following Siyan Chen and Wang getting fifth and eighth place at the end of the second round.  However, the real story was how freshman Lexanne Halama had her best finish this week with a tie at 23rd place in the last few rounds.

This is the first time this year the Illinois has been out of the top five, which is a better start that last year and exactly what head coach Renee Stone was hoping for.  Illinois preseason expectations and golfers to watch list is still waiting to see whether three fellow illini deserved to be on there. Chen received a 37th place finish with scores of 78 and 71, keeping Illinois in everyone’s vision. Senior Kornkamol Sukaree was tied for 69th after Tuesday’s concluding rounds, which means the three golfers to watch this season are making noise. 

Illinois will end part one of their season on Oct. 29-31 when they travel to Wilmington, North Carolina for the Landfall Tradition. This 18-team invitational will be from Friday to Saturday and the last event before Illinois begins its race to the NCAA Championships.

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