Northwestern women’s golf’s season came to a close Saturday, but a good final day wasn’t good enough to salvage a rough start to the weekend. The Wildcats finished eighth out of 14 programs at the Therese Hession Buckeye Invitational, going 49-over par in their three rounds at the Scarlet Course at Ohio State Golf Club.
The host of the tournament walked away with the team-win, as Ohio State won the tournament at 26-over with Iowa State and Kent State rounding out the top three with 28-over and 30-over,
respectively. Xavier’s Madison Reemsnyder captured the individual championship, finishing as one of two players that went under par at 3-under in addition to the Buckeyes’ Nellie Ong who finished 1-under.
The star of the tournament for the ‘Cats was Ashley Yun, who finished tied for fifth individually. The junior went 6-over and got progressively better throughout the tournament play with rounds of 77, 74 and 71. That final-round 1-under 71 was the lowest score of the weekend for the Wildcats and enabled her to jump up fourteen spots on the leaderboard. Yun also led the tournament in birdies with 12 and was among the tournament’s best performers on the course’s par 5s, averaging 4.75 strokes per hole which tied for third.
Sophomore Diana Lee was Northwestern’s most consistent performer of the tournament, finishing with 76s across all three rounds which tied her for 20th at 12-over. While not enough to compete with the top of the leaderboard, her consistency was a stabilizing force for the team and her 31 pars ranked in the top 20 in the field.
Megan Meng was the best comeback story for the Wildcats. After opening play with rounds of 79 and 80, the sophomore bounced back big time with a 73 on the final day of play. Her 1-over round was the biggest single-round improvement for the team and moved her up 21 spots in the standings, the second biggest jump in round three. Overall, Meng finished the tournament at 16-over, but her final round showed that she’s a player that can work with a short memory and put together a complete round as the ‘Cats prepare for postseason play.
Hsin Tai Lin had strong stretches across all three days, but wasn’t able to turn it into anything significant. With rounds of 80, 76 and 78, Tai Lin finished at 18-over and tied for 32nd. Her best run came in the back nine of the second round, where she made three birdies to finish 4-over, a much needed boost for the Wildcats in the middle of the tournament.
Lauren E. Lee rounded out the lineup at 20-over with rounds of 77, 80 and 79. Similar to Tai Lin, Lee showed flashes of success, but had difficult stretches that prevented her from posting a clean round. The first-year also left a lot of scoring on the board, finishing with 33 pars and just one birdie, while also logging a team-high 19 bogeys.
The tournament had a feel of a Northwestern team that was still searching for its best golf. The first two rounds was a rough stretch for the team overall, but the final-round was an encouraging sign for the program and could give the Wildcats that extra boost they’ll need heading into the postseason.
Up next, the Wildcats will head to the Big Ten Tournament at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, California from April 24-26.
