Golf Invitational gets underway

Published 12:00 am Monday, October 26, 2009

After the first day of the Troy University Women’s Golf Invitational at the Troy Country Club, the Trojans have a good chance to bring home both individual and team championships when play wraps up today.

“We just need to continue doing what we’re doing, and get a little more efficient,” said head coach Matt Terry. “I feel like we made some mistakes on a couple of easy holes. We’ve got to play No. 8 better. We had four doubles on that hole today. We just have to get off to a good start tomorrow. That’s the biggest thing I can see is getting off to a good start tomorrow will be a key to us playing better.”

The tournament began with 36 holes of play Monday, after which Louisiana-Monroe held a two-stroke lead over Troy for first place.

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Sophomore Haley Lawrence shot rounds of 71 and 74 to give her a one-shot lead over ULM’s Angel Drane for first place in the individual standings.

Lawrence said she isn’t worried about having a target on her back in the final round.

“I don’t think it’s much pressure because I know this course, so I should be fine,” Lawrence said. “I know this course backwards and forwards by now, so I’m just going to go in and relax and try to keep my head in the game.”

Terry said Lawrence played about as well as he had seen her play coming into Monday.

“I was proud of her shooting 71-74,” Terry said. “That’s pretty solid. On this golf course, that’s some of the better scores she shot out here. She played good this summer and it looks like she might be getting back into form. I look for her to play well again tomorrow, and I think we’ve got a couple who could play better tomorrow that don’t feel like they played as well as they should have today.”

Troy trailed Jacksonville State after the first 18 holes by just two strokes, and appeared set to take the lead when the Gamecocks shot 316 in the second round.

However, ULM shot a tournament-low round of 297 to come from a tie for fourth place all the way into sitting alone atop the leader board.

The tournament’s final round will begin with a shotgun start today at 8 a.m.