Women’s golf

Pacific-10 champion Arizona State, UCLA and Virginia are the top seeds for the NCAA Division I regionals, which tee off Thursday. Arizona State will host the West Regional, while UCLA leads the Central Regional field in Columbus, Ohio, and Virginia the East in Gainesville, Fla. Defending champion Southern California is the second seed in the West.

The top eight teams in each regional, plus the top two players not affiliated with any of those teams, advance to the national tournament May 19-22 at Caves Valley Golf Club outside Baltimore.

Arizona State owns six national titles but none since 1998. The Sun Devils have the defending individual champion, senior Azahara Munoz of Spain, on their roster. Another Spaniard, freshman Carlota Ciganda, won the Pac-10 tournament.

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COLLEGE GOLF: Clements takes second at Big East; Cards win title

After battling for the chance to just play in the Big East Conference Championship, Karsten Clements didn’t want to let to opportunity go to waste.

 Mission accomplished.

 

The redshirt sophomore and former John Hardin High School standout, who had to rally in the final tournament of the regular season to earn a spot on Louisville’s tournament squad, carded a 4-under 68 in Tuesday’s final round of the Big East Championship to finish tied for second at 6-under, while helping lead the Cardinals to their second conference title in three years.

 

“I was really blessed to be there in the first place … but I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason,” said Clements, who entered the final round in fifth before finishing in a three-way tie, three strokes off the lead. “Fortunately I was able to play well.”

 

That may be a bit of an understatement as Clements and senior teammate Adam Hadwin, who won with a three-day score of 9-under, were the only two players in the field of 60 to break par all three days at Lake Jovita Golf and Country Club in Tampa, Fla.

 

“I knew three days under par would be pretty good,” Clements said. “I’m real happy for Adam. This was his first tournament win. I wouldn’t want to finish second to anyone else.”

 

The Cardinals came into the day with a commanding lead, up 11 strokes on Marquette. In the final round, however, the Golden Eagles roared back as the top four collectively shot 15-under, but Louisville was able to hold on as its top four shot 9-under to win by five strokes.

 

Clements still regrets never earning a high school state championship ring while at John Hardin, but said a Big East championship ring will be a pretty good substitute.

 

“That’s pretty neat because it’s something that you will always have with you,” Clements said.

 

With the win, Louisville earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Central Regional, which will be held May 14-16 at a site to be determined.

 

“We were in position to probably make it even if we didn’t win, but knowing that you have that little bit of security, that’s awesome,” said Clements, who thinks the win will give the team a boost heading into the next round. “Playing good golf, that definitely carries over into future months and weeks. It’s definitely a confidence boost to win this.”

 

Clements had a tough finish to his round Monday, shooting 3-over on the final five holes, but quickly got back on track Tuesday.

 

He carded three birdies on the front nine and didn’t make his first bogey until the 12th hole. He followed that with a birdie on the 14th before birdying the 16th a day after taking a double-bogey on the par-4.

 

WOMEN’S SUN BELT CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP. Middle Tennessee State freshman and Central Hardin High School graduate Karisa Akin managed to knock three strokes off her opening round score Tuesday, but climbed the leader board only one place.

 

A day after firing an 8-over 80 to tie for 31st, Akin shot a 5-over 77 to enter today’s final round tied for 30th.

 

Despite her improvement, Akin is still looking for her first birdie of the tournament after carding five bogeys and 13 pars Tuesday at Cypresswood (Cypress Course) in Houston.

 

Unlike Akin, the Blue Raiders were unable to make up any ground in the second round, rather, sliding from second to fifth as they enter today at 37-over. The University of Denver leads at 1-over, while Arkansas-Little Rock’s Mallory Fraiche comes into today with the top individual score at 2-under.

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MU Golfers Conclude First Round of BIG EAST Championship

DADE CITY, Fla. — Marquette University’s men’s golf team opened the 2009 BIG EAST Championship with a team score of 4-over-par 292 and are tied for third place with St. John’s University following first-round action Sunday at Lake Jovita Golf and Country Club.

Four Marquette players — freshman Matt Haase, sophomore Kelly Kretz and seniors Dustin Schwab and Mike Van Sickle — finished at 1-over 73 at the par-72, 7,031-yard South Course.

“I feel we could have been better today,” said Schwab. “It’s encouraging that we all kept it around par. I had a lot of good putts today that just didn’t go in and there’s not much you can do about it. Tomorrow, if we can just get a couple of shots better per guy, we’ll still be okay.”

A familiar setting for the Golden Eagles, MU had played the South Course earlier this spring at the Ron Smith USF Invitational, which the team also played at in 2007 and 2008. Lake Jovita was also the site of the 2006 BIG EAST Conference Men’s Golf Championship.

“I don’t think we adapted quick enough to how the conditions were,” said head coach Tim Grogan. “If we would have done that earlier, we’d probably be within five [strokes] of the lead.”

Fast fairways and even quicker greens put a premium on accuracy and putting, as only Louisville and Seton Hall fired team scores that were under par. The Cardinals lead the 12-team field after day one at 6-under 282 with SHU three stroke back at 285.

“The course is actually quite a bit different than we’ve ever played it before,” said Kretz. “It’s harder and the greens are even faster. It’s always had fast greens, but they were even faster today. You can have a 10-footer and are worried not to hit it three feet past the cup.”

Haase was 3-over following a bogey on the par-4, hole 16, but closed with back-to-back birdies after hitting his second shot out of bunkers on both 17 and 18.

Kretz made birdie on hole 10 to move to 3-under on the day, but double bogey on hole 11 triggered three more bogeys over the next five holes. Kretz then drove the green on the par-4, 362-yard hole 17 to pick up his team-best fifth birdie of the day.

“I was kind of disappointed with the way I finished,” said Kretz. “I thought I was really hitting the ball well with the exception of maybe two swings, which cost me some shots, and I never really putted it that well all day. I feel good about tomorrow. Hopefully I get just as many birdies without any bogeys.”

Ben Sieg, who shot a first-round 78, owns Marquette’s first tee time for Monday’s second round of the 54-hole tournament, which is scheduled to start at 7 a.m. Central. Sieg will tee off at 9:30 a.m.

“If we play a little more cautious, I think we can work away at Louisville’s lead,” said Grogan. “We just need to play the course like we’re capable of. But it’s not going to be done all in one round. If we can make up some ground tomorrow, we should be in decent shape heading into Tuesday’s final round.”

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