The Lady Bobcats finished a three-week road trip on Sunday and Monday as they traveled to Forest Akers Golf Course in Lansing, Michigan for Michigan State’s Mary Fossum Invitational.
Ohio is coming off a sixth-place finish in Toledo’s Rocket Classic where the team finished the final round strongly, dropping five strokes to push themselves up to sixth.
The Bobcats opened the first-round shooting +31. Leading the way was senior Morgan Rodgers and junior Saylor Whariff. Rodgers gave Ohio a strong front nine with five pars and four bogeys while a solid back nine of five pars and a birdie on the 14th.
Whariff gave the Bobcats a great front with a 38 (+2), five pars, a birdie on the seventh and three bogeys. She slowed down on the back picking up three bogeys and a double bogey on the 15th.
Junior Ally Turner would fall one stroke back at +8. She got off to a slow start on the front with five bogeys, and settled in on the back with four bogeys and five pars. Sophomore Katie Husted would finish her opening round at +9, led by a strong turn around on the back nine with eight pars and a double bogey on the 15th.
Rounding out the group came senior Zoe Luebbers at +13 with eleven bogeys and a double bogey on the second hole.
The Bobcats would improve in the second round, dropping five strokes to finish +25 and tie for ninth with a final score of +56 in a short 36-hole tournament that cancelled the final round due to the weather conditions.
Luebbers turned heads as she’d improve by twelve strokes finishing one over par. On the front nine, she’d add two birdies, a bogey, a double bogey and five pars while on the final nine giving the Bobcats a consistent even round with birdies on holes 11 and 13 alongside five more pars.
Husted followed Luebbers finishing seven over. After picking up five bogeys on the front nine, she cut that total in half two on the back nine alongside seven pars. At eight over, Turner finished the tournament strong after a rough front nine with five bogeys and back-to-back double bogeys on holes three and four.
She ended her day strong, carding a 35 (-1) with consecutive birdies on holes 11 and 12, alongside six pars and a bogey on the 13th. Rodgers gave the Bobcats a solid +9 in the second round, picking up nine bogeys, five on the front and four on the back including 9 pars.
Finally, rounding out the core came Whariff at +16 with double bogeys on the front nine and eleven bogeys. Luebbers led the team at +14 while tying for fifth in birdies with three. She was followed closely behind by Husted, Rodgers and Turner, who all tied for 52nd at +16. Finally, Whariff placed 74th at +23.
Rodgers and Turner both tied for second shooting even par on par 3s.
As a team, the Bobcats tied for third on average score of par 3s at 3.25 (+10) and ninth on par 5s at 5.42 (+17)
The team will have time to correct some errors they’ve made in the last three tournaments as they prepare for the Butler Invitational at Highland Country Club in Indianapolis on Sunday October 5th and Monday October 6th.
