Laura Wearn’s success this year continued last week as she lead the Lady Paladins to a seventh place finish at the Mercedes-Benz Invitational at Knoxville, TN from Oct. 12-14.
Wearn battled with Purdue University’s Paula Reto for the top position on the leader board for much of the final round, but fell one stroke short and finished in second place with a hard-earned four strokes under par.
Wearn entered the final round with a three stroke lead, but was unable to hold off the surge made by Reto and finished one stroke behind.
“I’m so proud of Laura,” said Furman head coach Kelley Hester. “She had a real solid tournament and a second place finish is pretty impressive.”
The team finished at +33 overall, good enough for ninth place out of a 16 team field that featured six teams from the national top 30, and 13 golfers ranked in the individual top 100 nation-wide.
Furman is set to host the annual Lady Paladin Invitational at the Furman University Golf Course on Oct. 26-28. Hopefully, the team and individuals will continue to improve and feel some home-advantage luck.
Next week’s issue will feature coverage of this event, and if you see any golfers on campus this week wish them luck with the last Furman Golf event until next semester.
On the men’s side, the team was paced by senior Anthony Aloi, whose final round par put him into a tie for nineteenth place at the AutoTrader.com Collegiate Classic, at Berkeley Hills Country Club in Duluth, GA.
As a team the men finished in tenth place, also out of 16 teams. This is a step in the right direction for the team, who have struggled mightily so far this fall.
The tournament finishes up the fall schedule for the men’s team who won’t compete again until mid-February. Then, they will travel to Ponte Verde Beach, FL to start the spring campaign on Feb. 24-26.
Hopefully, the team can find their groove in the off-season and get on track to have a successful second half of the year.
The Bank of Tennessee Classic was won by twelfth-ranked University of Missouri, who edged out hosts University of Tennessee for a one-stroke victory.
The Paladins finished in twelfth place, but made a quick turnaround and had success at their mid-week tournament in Duluth, GA.