NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt’s Auston Kim has been named Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week for the second consecutive week, the league office announced on Wednesday.
Kim registered her second consecutive runner-up finish last weekend, helping the Commodores to a commanding win at the Reynolds Lake Oconee Invitational in Greensboro, Georgia. Vanderbilt overtook first-round leader Texas Tech in the opening nine holes then went on overwhelm the Reynolds Lake Oconee field with an impressive closing round to notch a 12-stroke victory.
Kim recorded a 54-hole, even-par 219 to pace the Vanderbilt team in Greensboro. Kim’s performance featured a 4-under 68 closing round, the lowest score in the field for the final round.
Kim, who has four top-five finishes in six tournaments as a freshman, has jumped into a top-25 national ranking (No. 24, Golfweek). Named to the ANNIKA Award watch list last fall, she is currently ranked No. 12 among American collegiate players vying for a spot in the Arnold Palmer Cup international competition this June.
Kim, a freshman from St. Augustine, Florida, also played a huge role in Vanderbilt’s dominant team victory at the UCF Challenge. The win came in the nationally-ranked Commodores’ first tournament of the spring campaign. Kim registered a 54-hole, 10-under-par 206 to claim the runner-up trophy in stroke-play competition at the tournament, held Feb. 3-5 at Eagle Creek Golf Club in Orlando. Kim fired sub-par rounds of 70, 66 and 70 to pace the Commodores, who captured the team title by eight strokes.
The Commodores will return to competition in early March in search of their third consecutive team trophy at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate. It is scheduled March 8-10 at Long Cove Golf Club in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
