PALOS VERDES ESTATES, Calif. – Vanderbilt continued to struggle Monday during the second round of the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club.
“I honestly think we’re playing a lot better than our score shows and I really don’t think we’re that far off from being the team that I think we can be,” said head coach Greg Allen.
In the 16-team field, the Commodores remained in 13th place after their second 18 holes of the 54-hole event. A 14-over-par 298 left the Dores (+31) tied with Pepperdine and 33 shots back of leader Oregon going into Tuesday’s final round.
The Ducks hold a one-stroke advantage over the only other team under-par on the course, No. 6 Virginia. No. 5 Wake Forest and No. 12 Arizona State improve to third and fourth, respectively. Rounding out the top five is Sunday’s leader Kent State, who dropped to fifth after 36-holes.
The par-71 course that is 6,017 yards in length certainly challenged the field of top college golfers. Only three teams are under-par through 36-holes and the average score among the individual field is 74.42. Out of 84 individuals, 10 finished the 36-holes under par.
Senior Auston Kim battled for a 4-over-par Monday and remains in the top 20. She’s in a five-way tie for 20th in the medalist competition, 11 strokes off the lead maintained by Wake Forest’s Rachel Kuehn, who sits at 15th in the latest Golfstat poll.
Freshman Natasha Kiel and fifth-year senior Louise Yu paced Vandy on the second day with a 3-over-par 74. Kiel and sophomore Virginie Ding are in a six-way tie for 52nd at 9-over-par. Yu (+10) rose seven spots into a tie for 58th while junior Celina Sattelkau (+11) improved slightly for a tie of 62nd. Competing as an individual, junior Jayna Choi (+16) is tied for 76th after two rounds.
“We’re not gonna let a bunch of numbers on a scoreboard get us down,” noted Allen. “We have some very talented young ladies and it’s only a matter of time before we get it going.”
The Dores look to improve for the final round. Vandy tees off at 10 a.m. CT Tuesday and live scoring can be found here.
