The K-State women’s golf team took seventh out of 11 teams in their first competition of the season at the Trinity Forest Invitational in Dallas this week.
The tournament was hosted by Southern Methodist, who finished in a tie for ninth on their home course.
The invitational was a two-day, 54-hole tournament. The first two rounds were played on Monday with the final round Tuesday afternoon.
At the end of the first round, the Wildcats sat in a solid position on the team leaderboard. Their 295 was good for fifth in team standings behind Oklahoma State (291), North Texas (291), Baylor (292) and Colorado (294).
The first round was led individually by junior Reid Isaac, who was two-over at the turn, but found herself giving both of those strokes back on the back nine. Her even-par 72 still paced the Wildcats.
“It’s really easy to lose focus when the day is that long, especially when you’re fighting with the wind all day,” Isaac said to K-State Sports.
Sophomore Briony Bayles battled with the course, putting together a pair of bogeys and a pair of birdies to sit even at the turn. She never recovered from a bogey on the 15th and finished the first round at a one-over par 73.
Isaac got back out ahead of the course in the second round. Four birdies and two bogeys on the front put her at two-under and she managed to play even golf on her last nine holes to finish the round two-under.
“We were close, just let it get away from us at the end,” head coach Kristi Knight said to K-State Sports after the second round. “We were really close to having a really good day. The first round we were tied for fifth, three shots out of second and let it get away from us on our last 7, 8, 9 holes.”
Despite Isaac’s two-under 70, the Wildcats slipped to seventh after the second round. The team shot a 302 on the round.
Round three was much of the same for the Wildcats. Isaac jumped out to a two-under at the turn thanks to birdies on the seventh and eighth holes before a double-bogey on the 14th set her back to even for the round.
Isaac finished two-under for the whole tournament thanks to her second-round 70, good for a tie for fifth on the individual leaderboards. No other Wildcat finished in the top 30 players.
K-State’s next action will be back home in Manhattan at the Marilyn Smith/Sunflower Invitational Sept. 15-16.
