No. 2 women’s golf storms back to win tournament
Photo courtesy of Sports Information
Never say die · Sophomore Robynn Ree led the team at 5-under on Tuesday to help the Women of Troy to a 13-stroke comeback victory.
Entering the final round of play Tuesday morning at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate in Orlando, the No. 2 women’s golf team was tied for fourth in the team standings with No. 4 Georgia at 12-under. USC trailed then-leading No. 1 UCLA by 13 strokes to begin Tuesday’s final round of play at the Reunion Resort.
In the third round on Tuesday, USC recorded a team score of 12-under and clinched first place at the ANNIKA Intercollegiate for the second consecutive season. Overall, the Women of Troy won the tournament with a team score of 24-under; formerly leading UCLA finished in third place (-20) after shooting 5-over in the final round Tuesday.
“We know that every one of these girls is capable of shooting a low round,” head coach Andrea Gaston said. “The hardest part about the game of golf is forgetting what happened yesterday and starting fresh today; getting yourself in the right state of mind to play a great game of golf.”
Sophomore Robynn Ree shot a team-best 5-under in Tuesday’s final round. Ree finished the tournament tied for 17th overall with a final score of 4-under.
“[Ree] has a great way about her — she’s a fast player, and she’s a smart player,” Gaston said. “She made some really solid adjustments out there and boom, she ended up shooting a 5-under for us.”
The Women of Troy’s top-scorer in the tournament was redshirt senior Victoria Morgan, who finished at 7-under; this score tied her for eighth overall in the tournament’s individual leaderboard.
“[Our team] knew that if we each individually just played our own games, then we had a chance to win,” Morgan said. “We all believed in ourselves, but [when we actually won], there was a feeling of utter surprise … I’ve been playing here for four years, and we’ve never come back like this, and I don’t think I’ve seen any other team come back like this.”
All five USC golfers finished in the top 25 of the player leaderboard at ANNIKA this week.
A 4-under performance from senior Karen Chung in the final round Tuesday propelled her to a 25th-place finish overall in the tournament (-2). Seniors Tiffany Chan and Gabriella Then finished the tournament tied for 17th (-4) along with Ree.
“It’s a great feeling knowing that we are the defending champions [of this ANNIKA tournament] now,” Gaston said. “[Winning here] is definitely a very great and exciting way to start off our season.”
Following the season-opening ANNIKA Intercollegiate win, the team will next travel to the Glen View Club in Chicago to compete at the Windy City Collegiate Classic on Oct. 3-4.