Northwestern leads NCAA Women after Round 1

Reporting from Sugar Grove, Illinois

Friday, May 19, 2017

Never mind the cold and the rain, the chill and the darkness.

Northwestern persevered Friday in the opening round of the NCAA Women’s Championship at Rich Harvest Farms, the Wildcats’ score of 13-over-par 31 forging a two-stroke lead over Kent State, with four schools – No. 1 Stanford, Arizona State, Ohio State and Baylor – tied for third.

The pluck of the Wildcats was exemplified by Hannah Kim, their No. 1 player. She scored 3-over 75, but her world-class wedge to four feet at the last for one of only five birdies on the 476-yard par 5 hole. Numerically, that accounted for half the advantage Northwestern held overnight, but there was more.

Stephanie Lau, who also scored 75, posted 1-under 35 on Rich Harvest’s treacherous back nine. Janet Mao scored 1-over 73, the best Northwestern score, after opening bogey-eagle-bogey. Sarah Cho and Kacie Komoto each scored 6-over 78, but in the play five-count four world of college golf, one of them didn’t matter.

What did matter was their tenacity on a day when the high was 46 degrees – at 8 p.m., when the 6 1/2-hour rounds for threesomes were finishing.

“We had to embrace the challenge and really grind it out,” said Mao. “And the wind switched from yesterday. The line of play, the club you use changed.”

Lau speckled her card with three birdies, two on the back nine. Together, the five Wildcats played the maddening last three holes, a par 3-4-5 finish, in 1-over.

“I’m not much of a leader board watcher, but when I saw Northwestern up at the top, I said, ‘Wow, that’s pretty awesome,’ ” Lau said. “I’m proud of the way we fought. I trust that my four teammates will fight for every shot.”

This mentality is ingrained in the Wildcats via coach Emily Fletcher. This week, she had help. Football coach Pat Fitzgerald and men’s basketball coach Chris Collins, who know something about winning, gave the team motivational speeches.

“Fitz gave us the message of trusting ourselves,” Lau said. “We’ve put in the work. Chris Collins was telling us the ‘pound the rock’ story.”

Northwestern, one of 24 teams in the field. missed last year’s match play competition by a stroke by finishing ninth. Three weeks ago, the Wildcats led the Big Ten tournament by 10 strokes with 36 holes to play and ended up tied with Michigan State. They know only one chapter of this story has been written.

“That’s going to remind us of the value of every shot, or two shots,” Fletcher said.

“We’re not going to say our work here is done,” Mao said.

Northwestern was in the late-early wave, with its tee times starting at 8:36 a.m. To Fletcher, that’s good for momentum.

“Get to bed and get back out tomorrow, so I think it’s good,” Fletcher said.

“It felt like an episode of ‘Survivor’ out there today. To post the number we did, I’m so pleased with our play. We made some mistakes, but we played in the present and just played on.”

As they will Saturday, unless a sour weather forecast comes true. Meanwhile, they were off to dinner and their hotel promptly after finishing.

“It’s not much of a rest, but we’re excited about it,” Lau said. “

Purdue’s August Kim and Michigan’s Elodie Van Dievoet are the individual co-leaders at even-par 72. World No. 1 amateur Leona Maguire of Duke and Ireland scored 5-over 77. The field of 132 averaged 80.77.

– Tim Cronin