Sept. 25, 2011
Final Men’s Results 
|Final Women’s Results
The Vanderbilt men’s golf team fired a four-under par, 280, on Sunday to vault to eighth place in the team standings, while the women fired a 297 on Sunday and finished the Fall Preview in ninth place.
Freshman Hunter Stewart fired a team-low 66 on Sunday to lead the Commodore men. Vanderbilt junior Lauren Stratton finished in a tie for third with Virginia’s Brittany Altomare on the individual scoreboard with a two-under par, 214.
Middle Tennessee State captured the men’s title with an eight-under par total of 844 (285-280-279), one stroke better than Ole Miss. MTSU’s Hunter Green claimed medalist honors for the Blue Raiders with an eight-under par, 205 (70-68-67), two strokes lower than John Skeadas of Davidson.
UCLA claimed the Mason Rudolph Fall Preview by six strokes (296-283-294=873) over Alabama, the third time in the last five years the Bruins have come out on top at the Vanderbilt Legends North Course. UCLA also claimed the 2007 and 2008 Mason Rudolph Women’s Championship crown, and finished runner-up in 2009.
Duke’s Lindy Duncan defeated Alabama’s Jennifer Kirby in sudden-death playoff on the 18th hole. Duncan, who led for most of the round on Sunday, hit her approach shot on 18 to within four feet, and drained the birdie putt to outlast the Alabama junior. Duncan and Kirby each finished at four-under par, 212, but Duncan’s 68 on Sunday was the deciding factor. Kirby shot a final-round 74.
Vanderbilt Men
The Vanderbilt men posted their best round of the tournament, and were led by Hunter Stewart, who jumped 22 places on the individual leaderboard to a tie for ninth with his final-round 65. Seniors Adam Hofmann and Trey DelGreco fired an even-par, 71, and the Commodores also counted a one-over par 72 from junior Will Snipes. Fellow junior Ryan Thornton also had a solid day, finishing with a two-over par 73.
“I hit ten fairways for the first time in forever, and it’s not as hard to make 10 footers for birdie as it was 20 footers the last couple of days,” said Stewart. “That was the difference with the birdies. For the last two days I got penalized for my bad shots, and I paid for them in full. But, today I hit a couple and got away with them. The pins were the toughest today, but you expect that for the final round. The greens were a little bit faster today I thought, and it was a little more windy. I just hit it better and gave myself better chances.”
“It was a better performance for everybody,” said Vanderbilt head coach Tom Shaw. “Everybody was kind of in the game. We got off to a good start early and we sustained that. Hunter gave you a glimpse of what he’s going to be as a player. He’s dynamic and can light it up and probably should have had an even lower round than what he did. We had good production out of Trey and Adam and their rounds could have been lower, so it was a nice way to finish. We’re going to take this and move forward with it.”
Scores:
T9: Hunter Stewart-74-72-66=212
T17: Adam Hofman-72-71-71=214
T22: Trey DelGreco-70-75-71=216
T47: Will Snipes-76-75-72=223
T64: Ryan Thornton-76-78-73=227
Individuals:
T47: Ben Fogler-73-73-77=223
T51: Charlie Grace-75-74-75=224
T55: Charlie Ewing-74-75-76=225
T55: Mills Rendell-75-76-74=225
Vanderbilt Women
The Commodore women finished ninth in what may be the toughest regular-season field they face all season with a team total of 890 (296-297-297). Lauren Stratton finished in a tie for third and played consistently and calmly all weekend.
“It was very steady from day one,” said Stratton. “I played solid golf, and it was nice to play well. I was really comfortable out there. It’s nice playing at home and in front of a crowd. It’s our home course and I happened to play well.
“This was a good start for us. It played much different than we’ve ever played it, and we hope it will trampoline us into a good year. I’m definitely going to use it as my advantage and keep doing what I’m doing.”
Vanderbilt also counted a 73 from freshman Kendall Martindale, a 74 from senior Marina Alex, and a 79 from junior Anna Leigh Keith.
“I just hold on to the fact that for 36 holes, UCLA only beat us by 3 shots,” said Vanderbilt head women’s coach Greg Allen. “It was that round yesterday that really did us in, and college golf is so good on the women’s side now that you can’t afford to have an off day and you can’t afford to count high numbers as your third and fourth score.
“I’m really proud of Lauren Stratton, she was in the hunt coming down the stretch and just had a great week and played well. I was really impressed with her attitude and the way that she carried herself around the golf course. It should be a great year for her, her confidence will be through the roof after this week and we’re headed to Stanford where she plays really well. Kendall responded well today. Overall, I told my team I was impressed with the effort today. A ninth-place finish wasn’t what we were looking for, but when you’ve got 18 of the best teams in the country, we beat half of them. We’re not going to get down, we’re going to keep our heads up and keep plucking along. “
Scores:
T3: Lauren Stratton-72-71-71=214
T14: Marina Alex-75-70-74=219
T30: Kendall Martindale-74-77-73=224
T68: Anna Leigh Keith-75-79-79=233
88: Rene Sobolewski-80-81-84=245
Individuals:
T68: Irina Gabasa-79-76-78=233
T86: Julia Thead-88-75-80=243
91: Gaby Balit-91-97-88=276
