New season, new coach, same Hoyas.
After a four-month layoff, the women’s golf team returned to competition on March 6-7 at the Fighting Camel Spring Classic tournament in Buies Creek, N.C., finishing first in a field of 12 at 73 strokes over par.
Freshman Chelsea Curtis led the Hoyas from the first tee-off, posting scores of 72, 72 and 81. Her three-round total was good enough to make her the event’s top player, two shots better than the University of North Carolina Greenboro’s sophomore, Ashley Mylton.
Curtis shot par in her first two rounds on the 6,020-yard course and was the only player in the field to finish at par in two rounds.
The third day of competition saw difficult weather conditions, with winds of 22 miles per hour and zero cloud coverage. The average score of the third round, 81, was four strokes higher than the previous two-round average of 77.
The Hoyas faced stiff competition from host school Campbell. The aptly named Fighting Camels pulled to within one stroke after a two-round score of 622. The Camels, however, collapsed in the third round of competition when they could not keep up with the Hoyas’ 316-stroke pace.
Senior Christy Larrimore was the second cog in the Hoya win, pitching in a 15-over par 231 stroke total to take individual third place honors at the tournament.
Larrimore, the two-time team MVP, played consistently all weekend, firing rounds of 77, 76 and 78.
While Georgetown’s duo of Curtis and Larrimore held first place throughout the tournament, UNC-Greensboro’s Ashley ylton staged a comeback of her own, nearly pushing her Spartans into second place on the last day of the tournament.
UNC-Greensboro fell to Campbell by four strokes despite ylton’s 76 in the final round that helped cut the Camels’ lead from nine strokes at the beginning of the day to the final margin of four. The second-place finish was the first top-10 finish of Mylton’s career.
The victory was Georgetown’s first in women’s golf this year after several third- and fifth-place finishes at larger tournaments during the fall.
Acting Head Coach Connie Isler (MSB ’05) has kept the team under control and her women focused despite the fact that she plays on the women’s amateur circuit and is only one year removed from college.
Isler is giving back to a program that allowed her to progress to Big East champion and garner a top-100 ranking among female amateur golfers.
The Hoyas compete next at the Anteater Invitational in Santa Ana, Calif., on Monday and Tuesday.
