After a blistering start to its second event of the year, the Georgetown women’s golf team faltered down the stretch and finished fourth out of 14 in last weekend’s Lady Thunderbird Invitational in St. George, Ut.
After the first day of the two-day tournament, Georgetown climbed into first place. Led by freshman Jacquelyn Eleey, the Hoyas enjoyed an eight-stroke lead by posting an 11-over par 299. Eleey had the day’s top round, registering a 3-under par 69.
“The first day, we played awesome, and we ended up leading the tournament. All day we had great team camaraderie,” Eleey said.
Head Coach Kate Brophy was impressed with her team’s efforts on the first day of competition.
“We had such a great day the first day,” Brophy said. “We had Jackie [Eleey] shoot her lowest round ever, and we had [freshman Lauren Gros] shoot her lowest round in college. Overall, we had a lot of really positive things that we took away from the first day.”
On the second day of the tournament, Georgetown shot a 30-over par 318, resulting in the team’s fourth-place finish. Eleey shot a 7-over par 79 in the second round, which ultimately relinquished her overall lead but was good enough to give her the tournament’s second-lowest score.
“We wanted to follow up the first day with something similar, but on the second day, we just didn’t have any low numbers,” Brophy said. “The team didn’t have a great day, and we counted scores that no one was really happy with.”
Brophy remains optimistic about the future of her team’s younger players.
“Sleeping on a lead is really tough, but now that she’s had that experience, we look forward to her having more like it,” Brophy said of Eleey’s efforts. “Hopefully the outcome will be a little bit different next time.”
Despite her disappointing finish, Eleey still found positives to takes out of the experience.
“Even though we came up short, there were still some good things that we took away from the tournament,” Eleey said. “We learned a lot about ourselves, we were together as a team, and in all, I think there were a lot more positives than negatives.”
While the team is capable of posting impressive scores, it above all desires consistency. Outside of Eleey, other standout performances included those by Gros and junior co-captain Patricia Lee. Gros tied for eighth place with a 7-over par 151, while Lee tied for 39th place at 16-over par 160. Gros’ first-round 72 was good for the fourth-lowest round of the entire tournament.
“We have a lot of people that can shoot low numbers, but we are still trying to put together a solid two or three consecutive rounds,” Brophy said. “It’s challenging because it’s still towards the beginning of the year, but I see that happening by the end of the year. That’s when we want to peak, and … we are really strong off the tees, we can hit the ball really well, but like any team, we can always work on our short game.”
After the up-and-down weekend, Georgetown has its sights set on the future. It plays next week on its home course, the Members Club at Fours Stream in Beallsville, Md., in the Hoya Invitational.
“We are very excited for our home tournament next week, the Hoya Invitational,” Eleey said. “We want to redeem ourselves after what happened last tournament, and we have very positive vibes and high hopes.
Brophy also looks forward to the opportunity to win the upcoming tournament.
“We have three more [definite] tournaments for the rest of the year,” Brophy said. “We would love to win at least one and maybe two, especially the Big East tournament.”
The team closes out its regular season with the Big East Women’s Golf Championship on the weekend of April 16. If it qualifies, Georgetown will participate in the NCAA Regional Championship on the weekend of May 7 and in the NCAA Championship on the weekend of May 22.
