Women's Golf places 11th at Florida Gulf Coast Inv.

Staff Reports

The Contraband

The McNeese women’s golf team wasn’t able to gain ground on the final day of the Florida Gulf Coast Invitational on Sunday, ending the tournament with an 11th place finish to open the spring season.

McNeese posted its best round of the tournament on Sunday with a 311 following a first round 318 and a second round 316 to finish the tournament with a 945.

Mercer held the team lead the entire tournament and finished the final round with an 894, nine shots better than second place Toledo. Elon placed third (914), followed by Xavier (916), Florida Gulf Coast (918), and Central Arkansas (920). Southern Illinois and Arkansas State tied for seventh at 924 followed by Ball State (930), and Stephen F. Austin (936) to round out the top 10. Trailing McNeese was Florida Atlantic (949), Drake (960), Western Illinois (974), and USC Upstate (984).

For the second straight round, Kaitlin Fox shot the low round for the Cowgirls with a 76 on Sunday to tie for 24th place with a tournament total 230. Kennedy Bodfield tied for 44th place with a 78 (237), Maiken Bing Paulsen shot a 78 and Sofie Winther shot a final round 79 as both players tied for 52nd place with a 240. Hannah Valentine finished in 80th place (256) following her final round of 90.

Mercer’s Payton Schanen shot her second one under par 71 to win the individual title with a 212, four shots ahead of Xavier’s Hanna Lee. Lee shot a final round two over par 74.

The Cowgirls will take a week off then will travel to Phoenix, Arizona Feb. 22-24 to take part in the Grand Canyon Spring Invitational.