Baylor Women’s Golf Places Fifth at Schooner Fall Classic
NORMAN, Okla. – Baylor women’s golf shot 3-under-par 281 in Sunday’s final round at the Schooner Fall Classic, resulting in a fifth-place finish with a three-round total of 13-under-par 839.
BU (-13) finished ahead of Texas A&M (-8), Clemson (-6), Oregon (-6), Florida State (-2), Notre Dame (-1), Mississippi State (+17), Wisconsin (+25), New Mexico (+35), UNC Wilmington (+38) and Texas State (+39). Baylor trailed only Alabama (-45), Texas (-28), tournament-host Oklahoma (-21) and Miami (-19).
Gurleen Kaur posted the Bears’ best round of the day at 3-under-par 68 to finish in a tie for 19th place individually at 3-under 210. Laila Hrindova made four birdies on the back-9 to post her third consecutive round at par or better with a 1-under 70, and she also tied for 19th place at 3-under. Maria Vesga recorded Baylor’s best finish in a tie for 14th place at 4-under 209 after her final round 3-over 74.
Fiona Liddell birdied her final hole to finish at even-par 71 for the day and tied for 68th place at 12-over 225 for the tournament. Diane Baillieux birdied three of her final four holes to card 1-over 72 and finish tied for 32nd place at even-par 213. Jordan Shackelford, who was competing as an individual, shot a career-best round of 1-under 70 to tie for 44th place at 4-over 217.
HIGHLIGHTS
Baylor recorded its best finish in three trips to the Schooner Fall Classic – the Bears took fifth place this season, tied for eighth in 2014 and finished 12th in 2017.
Baylor finished third in the 15-team field in par-5 scoring at 9-under 4.85, ranked fifth in par-4 scoring at 1-over 4.01 and finished ninth in par-3 scoring at 10-over 3.13.
BU finished second in the tournament with 185 pars and seventh with 45 birdies.
Maria Vesga tied for 10th in the 81-player field in par-4 scoring at 3-under 3.89, while Gurleen Kaur and Laila Hrindova tied for 14th at 2-under 3.93.
Kaur and Hrindova also tied for 14th in par-5 scoring at 3-under 4.75.
Diane Baillieux tied for 18th in par-3 scoring at even-par 3.00.
Vesga led the team and tied for sixth overall with 39 pars across 54 holes, while Kaur tied for 11th with 38 pars.
Hrindova led the team and tied for 16th in the field with 11 birdies, and Kaur and Vesga tied for 20th with 10 birdies apiece.
STAT OF THE DAY
5-under – Baylor was 2-over through 14 holes in the final round, but the four counting scores combined to shoot 5-over across the last four holes. Baillieux made three birdies and one par, Hrindova made two birdies and two pars, and Liddell and Kaur both played the last four holes at even-par with one birdie, two pars and one bogey.
TOP QUOTE
“It’s nice to see a couple players finish under par,” head coach Jay Goble said. “It was really great today to see the team rebound from a tough day – we were running out of gas physically and emotionally – and to see them finish the way we did. We went 5-under on the last four holes to salvage the day and continue to maintain a respectable fifth-place position in this field. I’m really happy for Maria (Vesga) – she had a great week even though she struggled today. It was also really nice to see Gurleen (Kaur) make a few putts today. She’s hit it really well all week, and it was strange for her to not see the putts fall, but today she made a couple more than she’s been making all week, so that was great. Laila (Hrindova) was playing one of her first tournaments in the lineup, and she hung in there and played three solid days, so for her to get in the lineup and play as well as she did, I’m really proud of her.”
WHAT'S NEXT
Baylor has two more tournaments during the fall season. The Bears next compete at the Betsy Rawls Invitational, which runs Oct. 19-21 at University of Texas Golf Club. BU then wraps up the fall season by hosting the second-annual Battle at the Beach, which will be played Nov. 2-4 at Club Campestre in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico.