The Great Smokies Intercollegiate tournament hosted by W. Carolina got off to a rough start for the Tennessee Tech women’s golf team.
The Golden Eagles sat in 11th place at the closing of day one. Sophomores Maddi Everts and Allison Geer led the team to improve on the second day to a 9th place finish.
Head coach Polk Brown said the first day was tough but the girls knew that the course had great chances for the players to shoot low scores and make up some ground if they fell behind.
The team did just that the when they returned to action on day two.
“We really turned it around,” said Brown. “I was really proud of how they grinded it out and hung in there.”
The team overall had a 20+ stroke improvement from the day before.
“They showed what they are capable of doing the second day,” said Brown. “I was thinking about where we could have improved from the first day going in to the second and it far exceeded my expectations.”
Maddi Everts lead the team’s second day performance, shooting a new career low of 67. The second day’s play was a 12 shot improvement from her performance on day one and brought her total to 146. Everts had zero bogies en route to her career low round. IT was enough to earn her a spot tied for 15th.
Allison Geer also had a career low of 70 on day two. She beat her previous career best by eight strokes and finished in 26th with her total of 149.
“Her short game was outstanding on the second day,” said Brown.
Freshman Whitney Robertson finished with a 157 total that was good enough for 48th on the weekend. Sophomore Megan Williamson shot 160 total that landed a 55th and freshman Lydia Triplett’s 163 overall put her in a tie for 63rd.
“They don’t have any ‘give up’ in them. They’re very good at bouncing back,” said Brown. “Whether it be a bad hole or bad day, they’re very good at putting things behind them.”
The women’s golf team returns to action on Oct. 7 at the CSU Wendy’s Invitational hosted by Charleston Southern.