Women’s Golf Competes at OBU Fall Invitational

Shawnee, Okla.—The Panhandle State women’s golf team traveled to Shawnee to take part in the OBU Fall Invitational hosted by Oklahoma Baptist University Sept. 24-25.

The ladies were among 49 golfers competing in the event with 11 teams represented in the field, spanning the NAIA, NCAA Division II and National Junior College levels. The Aggies landed 11th on the leaderboard as a team with round scores of 404 and 409. Emilee Smith turned in the lowest score for the team on day one with a 93 and finished T39 overall with a day two score of 103. Ashley Branch and Jacey Steel each saw improvement in Tuesday’s round with Branch shaving off ten strokes (109, 99) to finish 47th individually; Steel dropped four strokes on day two (110, 106) and placed 49th. Junior Rylee Higgins held the second-lowest scores for the Aggies marking 97, 101 to finish T42. Kylie Moore also competed for the Aggies and finished 48th with scores of 105, 108.

Head Coach Dewayne Mauldin was proud of the effort put forth by his young team, which includes four true freshmen players. “There was some great things and there was some little mistakes. One of the great things is the promise for how good this group can be; the little mistakes showed how young we still are. With a little more experience, golf course management, and getting more consistency they will see more improvement in their game.” He concluded, “I was very pleased on how they handled adversity.”

The 6,041-yard par-72 course at the Shawnee Country Club proved challenging for the lot of lady golfers, with just two achieving scores of par and one-under par. OBU’s Shelby Phillips marked a par in round one and Murray State’s Rian Moores notched a 71 in her opening round on Monday. The pair finished second and third respectively with Redlands Community College’s Marvelyn Kartika claiming the top spot with scores of 77, 74 to go seven-over for the tournament. Oklahoma Baptist took the team title with combined scores of 310 and 318.

Panhandle State women’s golf has one more fall tournament on the schedule before they shift their focus to making preparations for the spring. The team travels to Winfield, Kan. next for an outing in the Moundbuilder Fall Classic hosted by Southwestern College Oct. 8-9. The men’s team heads to Wichita next week to compete in the Newman Invitational Oct. 1-2 before joining up with the Aggie women in Winfield for their final event of the fall season.