The spring golf season hasn't been kind to The University of Memphis women's golf team. Before this week, the Lady Tigers finished 15th out of 18 twice and 16th out of 18 once in the three tournaments since the beginning of the calendar year. It seemed as if it was going to be a long season for the Lady Tigers.
However, the team may have turned a corner early this week at the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagle Invitational.Memphis finished in sixth place in the three-round tournament of 13 schools that ended Tuesday.
Three sophomore players shot career lows over the tournament: Ashley Burross, Stacey Tate and Meghan Mahoney.
Tate's career low of 215 was good enough for tournament individual medalist and on a greater scale, good enough for the lowest three-round tournament score in Lady Tiger golf history.
"Stacey played with an excitement and confidence that I expect her to play with each and every day," said head coach Jenny Bruun. "It was so fun watching her as she won her first collegiate title and I couldn't be happier for her."
It took three top five finishes until Tate finally reached the top of a leaderboard in a tournament. This season she has finished fifth, third and second in tournaments, but was unable to rise above the rest.
"It was quite a shock," said Tate, who came back from three shots down during the final round to capture the medal with a final score of 2-over par 215 (71-73-71).
The previous record low for Memphis was also the last time the Lady Tigers had an individual medalist. Jennifer Jaszek was the last of eight golfers to shoot a 219. She hit the mark in 2002.
Meghan Mahoney -- the team's No. 2 golfer -- has been battling back problems all year and forced her to play as an individual in the Golden Eagle Invitational, which meant her round scores could not be tallied with the team's.
"Going into this tournament I wanted Meg to be able to have the opportunity to play and compete, but not feel so much pressure to complete the tournament if her body would not allow her to, so that is why I put her in the individual position," Bruun said.
The lack of pressure may have helped Mahoney shoot a 15-over par 228 (74-74-80). That would have been the second best final score of Memphis' tournament. The score was also good for a career low, besting her previous low by one stroke.
Burross beat her personal best of 251 by 19 strokes, shooting a 20-over 232.
"Ashley Burross has traveled to our last two tournaments and she has been extremely steady," Bruun said. "She really came up big for our team this past weekend and for her to shoot her lowest 54-hole total by 19 strokes is incredible"
However, to have three players shoot career lows and finish in sixth place shows the amount of improvement that is needed.
"This team is young and whenever you have a young team there is going to be some inconsistencies and some stepping stones in order to get to the top," Bruun said. "To win a golf tournament you need lots of things to go your way. We currently have the ability to win a golf tournament and finding my strongest five players that week and getting all of them on the same page at the same time is what I am striving to do."
However, Bruun said her players have picked a right time to peak. The Conference USA tournament starts April 18.
