FGCU W-Golf: Dale McNamara Invitational Recap

The FGCU women’s golf team concluded their regular season with a 10th place finish out of 13 teams in the Dale McNamara Invitational at Tulsa Country Club on Tuesday, hosted by the University of Tulsa. The Eagles finished with a final score of 930 (+90) over three rounds. The Eagles were eight spots behind Cincinnati, while the eventual winner of the tournament was Oklahoma State.

“Today was a little better for us,” said FGCU head coach Sarah Trew. “We shot our best score and all four scores were in the 70s. We talked yesterday about how we have not finished outside of the top 10 all year, and we weren’t about to start now.”

“I am happy about the way we rebounded and capped off our final regular season round. We have some things to fine tune before conference, but we have a week and a half to address the issues we need to. We are looking forward to putting in hard work and performing well at the A-SUN tournament.”

Freshman Natalia Nassar led the way once again throughout the whole tournament as the Colombia native finished with a +20 and a final score of 230 (75-80-75) tied for 33rd place. Sophomore Ailsa Clark had her best third round of the tournament, finishing with a +26 and a final score of 236 (80-80-76) to record a 46th place tie.

Junior Kelsy Holbert finished second on the team with a final round score of 77, which was her second best round behind the 75 she produced in the second round on Monday. Holbert tallied a 233 (81-75-77) and a +23 to tie for 37th place.

Sophomore Kate Williamson finished with a +25 and a final score of 235 (77-79-79) to tie for 43rd place.

Junior Madeline Marck-Sherk rounded out the lineup as she finished with a +30 and a final score of 240 (77-82-81)  tied for 57th place.

The McNamara Invitational was one of the toughest and deepest slate of competition the Eagles have faced all spring as a total of six GolfStat top 100 teams matched the total number of teams the Green and Blue had faced up to this point in the spring season. FGCU has not faced more than two top 100 teams in any tournament this spring.

Quotes from Other Coaches:
Cincinnati: "Today was a frustrating day as we didn't execute shots well," said head coach Janet Carl. "We are seeing improvements in our processes, but today, not in our results. It is time to get home and get ready for the conference championship."

Texas A&M: "I am proud of the way we fought today," said Texas A&M head coach Trelle McCombs. "The girls settled in nicely after a shaky start, even getting to within a couple of shots at one point."

"Maddie (Szeryk) winning for the second time in two weeks is awesome," added McCombs. "She knew she was a few back coming down the stretch and needed to make some birdies. She's really starting to put together some great round at the right time."

Texas Tech: "Today was a much better day for us," Tech head coach JoJo Robertson said. "We stumbled a little coming in, but all-in-all it was a good final round. Our team had the second-lowest round of the day and really looked good out there. I'm pleased for Gabby as she hung in there all week and had a great chance for the win."

Texas State: "It was a great week for the team," head coach Lisa Strom said. "We were able to finish ahead of a couple of teams ranked better than us. With Sasikarn and Anne-Charlotte leading the way, we have some momentum heading into the Sun Belt Conference Championship next week."

Mississippi State: "We finished with three individuals in the Top 20," MSU coach Ginger Brown-Lemm said. "It was a good way to finish up the season. Now we evaluate strengths and weakness and prepare for SEC's."

Fresno State: "We had a challenging finish today and shot ourselves out of it in a pretty sluggish round," said head coach Emily Loftin. "But it's always exciting to be in the mix with some really competitive teams from across the country that we don't normally see. It was a great learning experience for us as we look forward."

"I'm thrilled for Brigitte (Thibault); she battled back after a hard first round and put two good rounds together at the end," said Loftin. "That showed some resiliency."

"Always exciting to see top 25 finishes," Loftin added. "It's certainly another good one from Mimi and it was great to see Alison lock in her first top 25 as well."

"There are a lot of exciting things happening on this team and there are some things these players are starting to discover about their games," Loftin said. "I think we're really starting to reach our peak which is excellent timing as we get home and get rested up for a few short days before we head off for conference."

Next up, the Eagles will prepare for the A-SUN Championship April 22-24 in Braselton, Georgia. The winner of the A-SUN Championship will go to the national tournament at the Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Oklahoma.