Gaining Ground

Dores move into tie for 22nd, 8 strokes off cut line

CARLSBAD, Calif. – Vanderbilt women’s golf carded a 7-over-par 295 in Saturday’s second round of the NCAA Championships to move into a tie for 22nd at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa North Course.

The Commodores will enter Sunday’s third round eight strokes behind the cutline. The top 15 teams following tomorrow’s round will advance to Monday.

“I thought we showed a lot of toughness today, especially Lynn, Tillie and Ding,” said head coach Greg Allen. “We were just another decent score away from putting up a number that would have moved us up the leaderboard. The conditions were definitely tougher this afternoon when the wind picked up and I think our girls handled that well.”

Sophomores Tillie Claggett and Lynn Lim each fired even-par rounds of 72 to lead the Dores on Saturday. Claggett rebounded from an early triple-bogey with four birdies on the back nine. Lim closed hard with back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 to help the Dores stay in contention.

Senior Virginie Ding finished at 73 for a 1-over round. Ding birdied two of the final three holes to close strong as well and sit in a tie for 29th individually. Graduate Celina Sattelkau went out at 1-under on the front nine before a tough start to the back nine dropped her to a 6-over 78 on the day. Ava Merrill returned to the lineup and carded an 81 in her first trip around the North Course.

The Commodores will tee off the third round beginning at 12:55 p.m. PT / 2:55 p.m. CT on Sunday.

“Tomorrow is going to be a big day for us and we will need a team effort and probably some help from teams in front of us,” said Allen, “but on this golf course, anything can happen.”

Vanderbilt is seeking its first appearance in Monday’s fourth round since the championship format changed in 2015. Texas A&M currently leads the field at 11-under 565 through two rounds with Stanford five-strokes behind the Aggies. The cutline currently sits at 11-over with Wake Forest and Arizona State tied for 14th.

Live scoring for the entirety of the NCAA Championships is available on Golfstat.