Tag: Blessings Collegiate Invitational

Blessings Collegiate Invitational: Vols’ second round results

Blessings Collegiate Invitational: Tennessee’s second round results

The Blessings Collegiate Invitational is taking place Oct. 4-6 at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Second round play concluded on Tuesday. Below are second round individual results for the Vols.

Blessings Collegiate Invitational second round results

  • T7. Spencer Cross (-5)
  • T9. Tyler Johnson (-4)
  • T15. Jake Hall (E)
  • T30. Hunter Wolcott/Bryce Lewis (+4)

Following the second day of the Blessings Collegiate Invitational, the Vols are in fourth place as a team (-4).

Arkansas (-11), Illinois (-10) and Ole Miss (-9) are a top the leaderboard. North Carolina (-2) is in fifth place following the second round.

Wednesday marks the final day of the Blessings Collegiate Invitational. The tournament is the first of the 2021-22 season.

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Arkansas cruises to victory at Blessings behind Kajal Mistry, Cory Lopez

The host Razorbacks ran away for an 18-stroke victory over runner-up LSU.

The only real question still hanging in the balance after the turn on the women’s side of the Blessings Collegiate Invitational wasn’t if host Arkansas end up on the top podium, but only if the Razorbacks would have the lowest score in each of the tournament’s three rounds.

Then, Kajal Mistry and Cory Lopez warmed up and even that point seemed moot.

Mistry birdied five of her last 10 holes and Lopez finished with birdies on three of her final four as coach Shauna Taylor’s squad lapped the field, posting an even-par team score of 864 for the three-day event, which was good enough for an 18-stroke victory over runner-up LSU.

Mistry finished the day with a 2-under 70 while Julia Gregg added a 72 and Lopez a 73. That meant individual overall tournament winner Brooke Matthews, who also carded a 73, nearly didn’t crack the top three on her own team.

Matthews still easily won the individual crown, finishing five strokes ahead of LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad with a three-day total of 10-under 206. The Tigers, led by Lindblad’s 211 and a fifth-place showing from Latanna Stone (218) finished second in the race for the team title.

Wednesday’s low round went to Pimnipa Panthong, the former Kent State star who transferred to South Carolina for her senior year. Panthong struggled out of the gate on Wednesday, dropping a stroke on the opening hole and then adding a double-bogey on No. 4, but she fired a 31 on the back to finish with a 68 on the day. The Gamecocks finished third in the team event, followed by Ole Miss (24 over) and Georgia (31 over).

Marina Escobar Domingo of Florida was even on the day to finish fourth in the individual standings for the tournament.

Tyler Lipscomb leads Alabama to victory at Blessings Collegiate Invitational

Lipscomb rolled in birdies in each of the first three holes as Alabama took the men’s team title at the Blessings.

Alabama’s Tyler Lipscomb finished off the second round of the Blessings Collegiate Invitational with a 20-footer for a crucial par. It was just a sign of things to come.

Lipscomb, a 2018 Rolex Junior All-American who’s now in his sophomore season with the Tide golf team, rolled in birdies in each of the first three holes, making the turn at 2 under and then cruising home to a team-best 72 as Alabama took the men’s team title, giving coach Jay Seawell’s team its first team event since the Shoal Creek Invitational in April 2019.

Davis Shore added a 73 while Wilson Furr pitched in a 74 for the winners at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Kentucky’s Alex Goff struggled a bit, finishing with a 76 as he bogeyed No. 17 and then tripled No. 18, but he still took the individual title with a score 210.

Leaderboard: Blessings Collegiate Invitational

Host Arkansas had the hottest hand in the third and final round, combining for a score of one over on the day, but still finished three behind second-place Tennessee. The host Razorbacks were led by Julian Perico, who carded a one-under 71 while Tyson Reeder added an even-par 72.

Tennessee was the one team that appeared within range of catching Alabama and while Hunter Wolcott (71) and Bryce Lewis (72) shined for the Vols, the bottom half of the five-person team didn’t fare as well, with two players failing to crack 80. Wolcott finished in a tie for second in the individual scoring with a three-day total of 212, which tied Texas A&M’s Dan Erickson.

Jack Parrott of South Carolina fired a 70 to lead the Gamecocks, who finished fourth on the strength of a 4-over 282 on Wednesday.

Vols are two strokes behind Alabama entering final round of Blessings Collegiate Invitational

Vols are two strokes behind Alabama entering final round of The Blessings Collegiate Invitational

FAYETTEVILLE — Tennessee men’s golf team is two strokes behind Alabama for the lead heading into Wednesday’s final round of The Blessings Collegiate Invitational.

The Blessings Collegiate Invitational is being played in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

“I’m extremely proud of the guys for hanging in there today without their best stuff,” Tennessee head coach Brennan Webb said following Tuesday’s second round. “We’re looking forward to a great opportunity tomorrow.”

Vols’ Individual Scores
T4. Hunter Wolcott, -3 (141)
T4. Bryce Lewis, -3 (141)
T18. Brayden Garrison, +1 (145)
T29. Rhys Nevin, +4 (148)
T39. Spencer Cross, +7 (151)

Team Scores
1. Alabama, -3 (573)
2. Tennessee, -1 (575)
3. Kentucky, +1 (577)
4. Texas A&M, +8 (584)
T5. Vanderbilt, +10 (586)
T5. South Carolina, +10 (586)
7. Arkansas, +11 (587)
8. Auburn, +12 (588)
9. Mississippi State, +13 (589)
10. LSU, +15 (591)
11. Florida, +17 (593)
12. Georgia, +25 (601)
13. Missouri, +27 (603)
14. Ole Miss, +43 (619)

Brooke Matthews with a Blessings home-course advantage proves dangerous

On Tuesday, Brooke Matthews gave Arkansas a big boost. With Matthews’ score helping, the Razorbacks went 1 under as a team and pulled away.

If there’s a venue where a home-course advantage would serve a player well in college golf, it’s Blessings Golf Club. The course sunk its teeth into the best programs in the nation at the 2019 NCAA Championships, and it re-emerged this week as host of the first stop on a three-tournament SEC fall schedule.

That’s a good thing for Arkansas junior Brooke Matthews, who fired the best 18-hole round of her college career on Monday – a tournament-opening 67. She came back Tuesday with one lower, a 66 that instantly bettered Matthews’ personal best.

“Very comfortable out here, it’s my home course,” Matthews told the Golf Channel after the round. “I was just excited to come out here and see what I can do.”

Leaderboard: Blessings Collegiate Invitational

Matthews’ whole day consisted of fireworks. She had three birdies on the front, but really got going on the final stretch of holes. She played Nos. 13-18 in 5 under, which included birdies at Nos. 13, 15 and 17 and a hole-out for eagle on the par-4 16th hole.

Someone had to let her know it had gone in – she was temporarily blinded by the setting sun.

“Blessings is a golf course that you just have to be patient on,” Matthews said. “I wouldn’t say I got off to a bad start but a little bit of a slower start than I would have liked. You can’t force it out here, just have to wait for it to come to you and that’s what I did.”

Summer results suggested something like this was in store for Matthews. She teed it up in the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, an in-town LPGA event revered by players on the Razorback roster. She made the cut and finished 49th there.

Matthews also made a run to the second round of match play at the U.S. Women’s Amateur in August.

On Tuesday, she gave Arkansas a big boost. With Matthews’ score leading them, the Razorbacks went 1 under as a team and piled on to what became a 10-shot lead on LSU, the next-best team on the board.

South Carolina is third at 16 over and Ole Miss is fourth at 21 over. The margin is also large on the individual leaderboard as Matthews leads LSU sophomore Ingrid Lindblad by five shots.

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In a final-hole blitz, Alabama extends lead to three at Blessings Collegiate Invitational

Alabama will take a three-shot lead into the final round of the Blessings Collegiate Invitational on Wednesday.

As soon as the fall college golf season became a reality in the SEC, Jay Seawell was thinking about competition.

“We’re going to compete as much as possible,” Seawell told Golfweek in September, shortly after Crimson Tide players had returned to Tuscaloosa but before the conference had announced its three-season schedule (of conference-only events).

“Scorebards, inner-squads, guys teeing it up in events, 54 holes even if it’s only 10 guys on our squad. I do think it’s very important to re-energize the competitive gene in them.”

Consider it energized. Alabama will take a three-shot lead into the final round of the Blessings Collegiate Invitational. The Tide went 6 under as a team on Tuesday at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas, jumping three spots up the leaderboard.

Leaderboard: Blessings Collegiate Invitational

“We made some putts today. It was great. Any time you play well, you putt well,” Seawell told Golf Channel at dusk after coming off the course as one of the final groups. “This place is so hard and pretty and it really does almost feel like a U.S. Open. You gotta be resilient.”

At Blessings, teams are playing all together in groups of five. Attitudes can go either way in that scenario, as Seawell pointed out. He had a meeting before the tournament to address it.

Alabama demonstrated their cohesion on the 18th green.

First, Davis Shore holed out from a bunker for birdie, his fourth on the back nine to end at 1-under 71. Then Thomas Ponder made a 30-footer for a closing birdie and a 71 of his own. Tyler Lipscomb completed the trifecta by making a 20-foot putt for par for the Tide’s best score, a 3-under 69.

Alabama also counted a 71 from Wilson Furr.

Without mixed-team pairings, Alabama won’t have any kind of look at what their chasers are doing on Wednesday as they try to finish off a team title – what would be the Tide’s first since the Shoal Creek Invitational in April 2019.

“That’s the great thing about golf,” Seawell said. “You don’t play defense anyway.”

Tennessee and Kentucky are right behind Alabama on the leaderboard. Tennessee swung from 8 under on Monday to 7 over on Tuesday and Kentucky slid a spot with a 1-over 289 in the second round – just one shot worse than its opening effort. They are second and third on the leaderboard, respectively, at 1 under and 1 over.

Kentucky’s Alex Goff leads the individual race at 10 under, a number aided significantly by his second-round 65. Goff made six birdies on the front nine (he started on No. 10), including four in a row from Nos. 2-5.

With men’s and women’s teams teeing it up at Blessings, there is also a program trophy to be awarded at the end of the week. Arkansas, the host, leads the race for that title with Alabama landing at No. 7, squarely in the middle of the pack.

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Georgia men suffer costly mistake, Arkansas women cruising at home at Blessings Collegiate Invitational

The Georgia men suffered a costly mistake while the Arkansas women cruised at home Monday at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational.

The inaugural Blessings Collegiate Invitational is pretty unique.

Like many college tournaments, it’s a 54-hole event where teams of five count their four best scores. So what makes it unique?

For starters, it’s a conference-only event featuring all 14 schools in the SEC. On top of that, men’s and women’s teams are competing on the same course at the same time. Here’s where it gets interesting. Due to the pandemic, instead of being paired with other schools, teams are playing together, with all five golfers per team competing on the same hole – women first, then the men.

Five balls with the same school logo in play is a recipe for chaos and it was a dish served cold for the Georgia men during Monday’s first round at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

“We had two guys hit the wrong ball,” said head coach Chris Haack to Golf Channel during an on-course interview. The two players were Will Chandler and Davis Thompson, who recently had an impressive showing during the first round of the U.S. Open.

Blessings Collegiate Invitational: Women’s scores | Men’s

“We’re coming off playing the hole before that 5 under, we’ve got five guys in the fairway looking good, get up to the green and realize two of the guys had hit the wrong ball. Lesson learned there,” said Haack. “It’s kind of like running the ball into the endzone and dropping it two yards before you get in there.”

After realizing their fairway fumble, both players went on to make double bogey, resulting in a four-shot swing in the the wrong direction for the Bulldogs, who finished the day 13th at 17 over.

Tennessee sits atop the men’s team leaderboard at 8 under and holds a commanding lead over Kentucky and Texas A&M, who sit T-2 at even par. LSU and Alabama are T-4 at 3 over. Vols junior Hunter Wolcott leads the individual competition after a 4-under 68 in the opening round. Teammate Bryce Lewis is T-2 with Kentucky’s Alex Goff at 3 under.

On the women’s side, the Razorbacks feel right at home atop the team leaderboard after finishing the first round at 1 over on their home course. LSU, which had a birdie party on the par-3 13th, are second at 5 over, followed by Florida at 7 over in third. Georgia and Auburn are T-4 at 12 over.

Razorback junior Brooke Matthews is tied for the individual lead with LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad after impressive rounds of 5-under 67. Florida’s Addison Baggarly and Maisie Filler, along with Kentucky’s Laney Frye, are T-3 at 1 under.

Five awards will be handed out after Wednesday’s final round to the men’s and women’s team and individual champions, as well as one to the school with the best overall combined scores. The action continues Tuesday morning in Arkansas, with Golf Channel airing the tournament from 3:30-7:30 p.m. ET.

Tigers making birdies: Watch four LSU women almost ace the same hole at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational

The LSU Tigers made birdies with ease on the par-3 13th at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational on Monday.

Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas is no joke.

With a course rating of 80.9 and slope of 155 off the longest tees, the home of Arkansas’ men’s and women’s golf teams is one of the most difficult courses in the United States.

Tell that to the LSU women’s team.

During Monday’s first round of the Blessings Collegiate Invitational, a 54-hole all-SEC showdown featuring the men’s and women’s teams of all 14 schools in the conference, the Tigers put on an absolute clinic for how to play the par-3 13th.

Due to the pandemic, all five players per team are playing the same hole at the same time – women first, then the men, of course. Four of LSU’s five players – Ingrid Lindblad, Latanna Stone, Carla Tejedo Mulet and Jessica Bailey – made birdies in truly impressive fashion.

Blessings Collegiate Invitational: Women’s scores | Men’s

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