Battle in Florida

GAINESVILLE -- A great effort by the BYU women’s golf team resulted in a 75-over-par finish after two rounds of the Lady Gator Invitational at the University of Florida’s Mark Bostick Golf Course.

The windy opening day put the Cougars in 14th place with the final round to be played Tuesday morning.

“The wind was pretty uncharacteristic of this area,” said head coach Sue Nyhus. “It was a tough scoring day, which is why a lot of teams finished with pretty high scores.”

BYU got off to a good start in the opening round to end the first 18 holes at 33-over-par. Natalia Jimenez ended the round at 5-over and tied for 19th place. In the second round, she scored a birdie on the par-4 No. 14 hole and made five holes at par overall in the round.

Freshman Maggie Yuan continued to play well as she made 10 holes at even-par in the second round, including five consecutive holes from the par-4 No. 4 hole to the par-3 No. 8. She is currently leading the team in 33rd place overall in the field of 84 participants. She finished the rounds at 7-over and 9-over, respectively.

Shayla Forsey also put in a consistent effort as she scored six holes at par in the second round and ended the first round in 38th place overall.

Sophomore Sara Romero totaled eight holes at even-par and improved by three strokes in the second round. She scored a 10-over 80 in the second round after a 13-over first round, jumping four spots in the overall field.

Jade Bollinger tied Yuan with a team-leading 10 holes at par in the second round as she made four in a row from holes eight to eleven. The Florida native also improved her first-round score by four strokes as she gave a 9-over performance in the second round.

“We struggled at times with the weather and ball placement,” Nyhus said. “Hopefully we can be consistent in the final round and have a better day on the course.”

The Cougars resume play Tuesday morning at 6:30 a.m. MT with the third and final round. Live stats are available on golfstat.com.

    2009 Lady Gator Invitational
BYU  14th/16  +75
T33  Yuan      77-79  +16
T52  Jimenez   75-84  +19
T62  Forsey    78-84  +22
T62  Bollinger 83-79  +22
T69  Romero    83-80  +23
The field 
T1 (10)  Duke                  +43
T1 (6)   Alabama               +43
3  (29)  Florida               +46
4  (7)   Auburn                +51
5  (44)  Georgia State         +52
6        Northwestern          +55
7  (49)  Florida State         +59
8  (41)  Washington            +61
T9 (46)  Furman                +63
T9       South Florida         +63
11       Florida International +64
12       Coastal Carolina      +68
13       Campbell              +70
14       BYU                   +75
15       Georgetown            +86
16       Florida Atlantic      +90