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| Coleman Finishes 33rd At NCAA West Regional Release: 05/11/2013 Courtesy: David Plati, Associate AD/Sports Information | ||||||
| STANFORD, Calif.— University of Colorado junior Jenny Coleman finished in a 33rd place tie here Saturday as the 2013 NCAA Women’s Golf Western Regional came to a close. Coleman, competing as an individual, finished the event by turning in her best score of the three round competition, shooting and even par 71 on the 6,267-yard Stanford Golf Course. She bounced back from an 8-over 79 on Friday, just as CU coach Anne Kelly predicted and finished with a 72-79-71—222 scorecard for the tournament. She had two birdies, 14 pars and two bogeys in the final round, which she started on the back nine. She birdied No. 10, bogeyed 11 and then birdied 12. She then parred her next nine holes until the string was broken with a bogey on No. 4, and then she parred out in posting nines of 36-35. Coleman had four birdies, 38 pars, 10 bogeys and two double bogeys over the course of the three rounds, in which she played the 12 par-5 holes at 3-under par, the 27 par-4 holes at 5-over and the 15 par-3s at 7-over. It was Coleman’s fifth even-par round this season, and when combined with six subpar rounds, was her 11th round of par or better for the year; all numbers are CU team bests. The 71 also tied for the third-best round by a Buffalo in the postseason (regional or finals), bested only in the 2012 West Regional by Emily Talley (68) and Coleman herself (69). Her 222 total was the fifth-best for the postseason. The top eight teams and the top two individuals not on one of those teams advanced to the NCAA Championship Finals, which are set for May 21-14 in Athens, Ga. Coleman finished 15th of the 86 players who didn’t make it with their teams, eight strokes back of the second qualifying spot, and was third of the six players who competed here as individuals who had qualified without their schools. Coleman quickly corrected what had gone wrong for her in the middle round. “My full swing was really on the whole round,” she said. “I hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. (On Friday) I was mostly just a little off on my swing, and also my short game wasn’t that good, so I couldn’t save many pars. But I felt everything went really well today. “I’m glad (about ending with the 71), it’s a good way to finish. I had a nice season, I felt I played pretty well throughout, so it’s kind of nice to end this way.” She finished the year with a 74.11 stroke average for 35 rounds, the fifth-best season mark in school history. “She hit the ball very well today and played a solid round of golf,” Kelly said. “She had many attempts at birdie and made a couple. Her chipping was better today as well. I’m really proud of how represented CU here at the NCAA’s. "Jenny had an excellent year and is turning into one of the best collegiate players in the country. She has worked very hard during in her three years so far at CU, and I'm excited to see what she and the team can accomplish next season.” Southern California’s Annie Park and Purdue’s Paula Retro shared medalist honors, both finishing up with 7-under par 206 scores; Park led after each of the first two rounds and closed with a final round 68, while Reto caught her with a 66. But the day’s most spectacular round was turned in by USC’s Kyung Kim, who jumped from 31st into a third place tie with a 63; she had nines of 31-32 by scoring nine birdies and a just a single bogey in finishing with an even 210 total. Vanderbilt’s Kendall Martindale also finished at 210, with three others under par; the remaining 119 golfers in the field were all over par. The average score in the field for 377 rounds was 76.01, some 5 strokes higher than par. No. 1 USC scored the best team round of the tournament, a 4-under 280 Saturday, to vault from third into the victory with a 280 team score. No. 12 Purdue, tied for the lead after 36 holes, finished one back, with second round co-leader, No. 7 Vanderbilt, third (869). The remaining schools that qualified in the top eight were No. 4 South Carolina (874), No. 14 Stanford (875) and then a three-way tie for sixth, No. 6 Arizona, No. 40 Oregon and San Jose State (all at 889). Four of the five Pac-12 teams in the regional advanced to the NCAA Finals, as did Arizona State out of the Central Region and UCLA out of the East, giving the conference six schools, or one-fourth of the Finals’ field. |
