COLUMBUS, Ohio — After struggling through its first nine holes Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio, Vanderbilt fought back to put itself in position to finish among the top six going into Wednesday’s final round.
The top six teams in the 18-team field at the Columbus Regional advance to the NCAA Championships and the Commodores (+21), in eighth place, are just four shots back of sixth-place Kentucky and two shots back of seventh-place Virginia.
“We got off to a really horrendous start and I wasn’t quite sure what was going on after six or seven holes,” Vanderbilt coach Greg Allen said. “We knew the course was going to play much harder today but for some reason we didn’t handle it well early on.
“I thought we showed a lot of grit, toughness and heart on the back nine. It was good to see us play like the team that I know we are.”
Led by Auston Kim’s eagle on 12, Vandy found seven birdies during the back nine and finished 10-over-par for the day. That contrasted with the opening nine holes which saw the Commodores record 10 bogeys and six double bogeys.
Celina Sattelkau remained in contention for the individual lead with her second even-par round. The sophomore is tied for fifth overall going into Wednesday and five strokes back of Georgia’s of Jenny Bae.
Louise Yu was 3-over-par Tuesday and moved into a tie for tied 13th after 36 holes. Kim finished 7-over-par and is tied for 68th overall (+13) while Tess Davenport was 7-over-par and is tied for 49th (+10).
Jayna Choi, inserted into the lineup Tuesday, was 2-over-par and sits in 96th place.
“We feel like we have some momentum heading into the final round,” Allen said. “We talked about how this spring has prepared us for Wednesday. We know it will be tough and stressful at times but we know we have a team that can handle the situation.”
With an even-par round Tuesday, Georgia leads the field at 1-over-par. Michigan is second (+8) followed by Duke (+9), Kent State (+13) and Arizona State (+16), respectively.
Vandy is scheduled to tee off at 8 a.m. CT Wednesday. Live scoring for the Columbus Regional can be found HERE.
