Photo by APSU Athletics
The Governors have a victory in sight as they head to their final round of the Greenbrier Invitational in Lexington.
LEXINGTON, Kentucky—A huge second round put Austin Peay State University women’s golf within striking distance of the lead and gave the Govs a boost heading into Tuesday’s final round of the Greenbrier Invitational, hosted by Morehead State at Greenbrier Country Club.
Austin Peay’s second-round 304 bumped the Govs up into second place overall at 623 (319-304), nine shots behind tournament leader Cincinnati. The Govs are four shots up on UNC Asheville (627), with Ohio Valley Conference foes Belmont (636) and Morehead State (639) rounding out the top-five.
Each Governor displayed solid Round Two improvement—all five players improved at least one shot between Round One and Round Two, the only team in the field that can boast that claim—but none more than senior Taylor Goodley. After scuffling with an opening-round 83, the Eldorado, Illinois native fired a 73 in the second round, tied for the second-lowest individual showing in the second round and moving her up 12 spots into a tie for 11th. She also leads the tournament in par-3 shooting at 2.88/hole.
Goodley joined a pair of Austin Peay freshmen near the top of the leaderboard. Shelby Darnell’s 152 (77-75) has her eyeing her first career top-five finish; she’s tied for fourth with 18 holes remaining, thanks in no small part to a tournament-best six birdies and a 4.38 stroke average on par-5 attempts that’s far superior to the rest of the field. Fellow newcomer Taylor Dedmen looks to make it back-to-back top-20 finishes to open her career after carding a 156 (79-77) to sit with Goodley in a tie for 11th. If she holds onto a top-20 spot, she would be the first Gov since Monica Storey (2005) to open her Austin Peay career with back-to-back top-20 finishes.
Junior Meghann Stamps and senior Reagan Greene both made their season debuts for the Govs, Monday. Stamps’ 159 (80-79)—including a team-best 22 pars—has her tied for 19th, while Greene improved five shots from Round One to Round Two (86-81—167) to move up seven spots to 27th.
Tuesday’s 8 a.m. (CT) shotgun start finds Austin Peay paired with Cincinnati and UNC Asheville, and will have the Govs take off on hole Nos. 1-5. There will be no live scoring for this event, but a complete recap and a full component of stats will be available at the end of the day at LetsGoPeay.com.
Courtesy of APSU Athletics
