Allendale, MI - The McKendree University Women's Golf team spent this past weekend up in Allendale, Michigan to participate in the Gilda's Club Laker Fall Invite hosted by Grand Valley State at The Meadows. On an albeit uncommon format of a Saturday-Monday tournament, the Bearcats still played high-quality golf, holding second as a team for a substantial time, ultimately finishing third behind the top two teams in last year's season-ending Regional rankings, Findlay (#1) and the host Grand Valley State (#2). For coach Mikal Guffey, his entire scoring lineup finished inside of the Top 25, led by Chiara Bortolotti del Reino finishing inside the Top 10 with a sixth-place finish.
Bortolotti del Reino evenly spread out a seven-birdie event, and turned in three nearly identical scorecards. Her best round came in round two, where she went for a +3/75. Her final round's back nine was particularly noteworthy, going for a -1/34 and just one hole of bogey or worse. All told, there were plenty of clean numbers up and down all three rounds that led her to be firmly inside the Top 10 at sixth place.
Waritsara Rungrojanaluk sat at a +15/159 through two rounds, but saved the best for last with an impressive nine-stroke improvement. She blew through the front nine with a -2/35, including three birdies, before going +2/37 on the back nine to finish E/72 for the day. Ultimately, it was a four-birdie final round, and she would finish with five such results, all good for a tie for 12th place individually.
Alba Camps Pascual rebounded from a +9/81 opener, following it up with a sharp jump to a +2/74. She would card three birdies in the final round, two of which came on the front nine for a +6/78, adding up to a +17/233 for the entire event and a tie for 15th place.
Cale Albertina was able to evenly split six birdies across her three rounds, led by an opening round of +2/74. She was also able to play consistently, with her back nine/front nine splits staying within just a few strokes of each other. Her best, though, came on the back nine of her first round, going E/35 with a birdie on the 12th. Her grand total of a +19/235 was good enough to place her inside the Top 25 in a tie for 23rd place.
Outside of the scoring lineup, Rachawadee Srimaung had her best round at the start, going for a +6/78. She was able to keep it under 80 for a +7/79 in the second round as well. Finishing at +30/246, she would collect pars on 30 holes.
Reagan Potts was competing as an individual, finishing at +55/271. She would finish the event with four birdies, with her best round being a +14/86 in the second round.
National juggernaut Findlay led the way with a +16 team finish, and for a very strong majority of the tournament, had the mathematically best possible scoring lineup - sweeping first through fourth place. That eventually was surpassed, but the Oilers still dominated the event, finishing with a stout 38-stroke gap on second place and all but one spot on the event-ending podium.
After having most of the week off, the Bearcats will have a unique opportunity up next, heading to the venerable Cog Hill Golf Club in Lemont on October 5th and 6th for the Lewis Fall Invitational. A highly-regarded course on the PGA Tour, it has seen five of Tiger Woods' career wins, three at The Western Open and two at The BMW Championship. The 2011 BMW Championship is the last PGA Tour event hosted there, currently capping an impressive list of 20 PGA Tour events hosted.
