Roughton fires season-best 71, Aggies take fifth at Peg Bernard

080414_sp_wgolf.C

Headline: Roughton fires season-best 71, Aggies take fifth at Peg Bernard

Layercake: Big West Conference Championships on the horizon

MATT MILLER

Aggie Staff Writer

Entering the final day of tournament play, senior Sydney Roughton was ready to go.

After carding a middling 77 on the first day, Roughton responded by knocking off six strokes to lead the UC Davis women’s golf team to a fifth-place tie with California at the Stanford-hosted Peg Barnard Invitational.

“Sydney played really well,” said head coach Kathy DeYoung. “She went after it for us but it was a battle all tournament long.”

Roughton finished in sixth place for the tournament with a final score of 148 over the 6,117-yard layout at the Stanford Golf Course. The sixth place finish was the first time this season that the Davis High School graduate broke into the top 20.

After the first day of play, the Aggies saw themselves 23 strokes behind the leader with their team score of 318. Three golfers finished with 80-plus scores in senior Bryana Gregory (83) and freshmen Alice Kim (81) and Chelsea Stelzmiller (82).

“We didn’t start off too well,” DeYoung said. “But I’m really proud of how we responded and adjusted. The greens were really fast and I think, speaking for the players, we adjusted well to the conditions and improved our putting tremendously.”

The Aggies worked off of the strong play of Roughton on the second day and jumped five positions by taking off 27 strokes from their previous score.

Freshman Katie Sisler posted a solid showing at the tournament with a score of 152, good for 21st place.

Both Kim and Stelzmiller improved upon their previous scores, carding 72 and 74, respectively.

Stanford won the tournament with a team score of 591, and only four strokes behind was the University of Washington, who featured the top golfer of the weekend, Karinn Dickinson. Dickinson shot a couple 71s to edge out the competition by one stroke.

Out of a pool of 13, the Invitational featured four teams in the top 50 according to Golfweek magazine – UC Davis just-in as number 49.

“It was a really tough field of play,” DeYoung said. “Not only was the field tough but so was the course. Really long par-4s and fast greens.”

The Aggies will take the tee again in a couple weeks when they enter the Big West Conference Championships in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. on Apr. 21.

“We look pretty good,” DeYoung said of the team’s chances entering the tournament. “All we can do is take care of what we can control. If we keep playing the way we’re playing, I think good things will happen.”

MATT MILLER can be reached at sports@californiaaggie.com. XXX