Hosting its first cross-team tournament since the 2019 regionals, Auburn women’s golf leads after the first of three days of its NCAA regional with a combined team score of 290 (+2). The Tigers lead one-seed South Carolina by three strokes with two more rounds to play at the Auburn University Club.
“We're preparing for the national championship,” head coach Melissa Luellen. “And so really working on our mental toughness, continuing to build leads and just playing really good golf. We don't really care who's behind us. We just want to be up front.”
Megan Schofill stole the show with an eagle on the par five, hole 16 to ultimately put her at a final score of 69 (-3). Schofill was able to take advantage of the par fives with birdies on both front nine holes and a par on 13 before her three shot performance on 16.
“Front left pin, that hole you really can’t land anything on the green so I had 215 (yards) and I hit a four hybrid which is like a 195 (yard) shot and probably one of my best shots of the day,” Schofill said of her second shot at 16. “Right off the club face coach Kim really thought it was going to be good and it ended up turning out pretty perfect so I was very happy with that.”
The final par five of the day was playing at a total of 496 yards with the green downwind causing most golfers to choose between either laying up or risk the ball rolling off the back of the green on their second shot.
Schofill, however, was able to land the ball just at the front of the green and let it roll within 10 feet of the hole. She knocked down the eagle putt and finished with pars on the final two holes to end the day tied for the individual lead.
“Some of these pin locations were really challenging today,” Schofill said. “Right on top of ridges and around the slopes but just having a lot of two putts and tap-ins for par is what you want and just makes it a stress free day.”
While Schofill was one of just seven players to shoot under or at par in the first round, the rest of Auburn’s squad was able to manage its home course well with both Anna Davis and Anna Foster just one shot over a piece.
“How are all of these other teams gonna play our course? You know, because we know it's hard. We know it's challenging. But you always wonder, how are the other teams going to play it,” said Luellen. “It played tough. The hole locations were tough but the golf course was in really good condition.”
The Tigers are scheduled to tee it back up at 8 a.m. CST Tuesday, May 7 with the same pairings from Monday, two-seed South Carolina and three-seed Oregon, with the top three seeds holding the top three spots on the leaderboard following the first day.
Auburn will look to ride the momentum and stay in the top five of the regional to advance to the NCAA National Championship tournament.
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Patrick is a sophomore from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in fall 2022.
