Florida State University Athletics
W. Golf: No. 12 Seminoles In 3rd Place At Valspar Augusta
3/11/2023 8:35:08 PM | Women's Golf
AUGUSTA, Ga. – No. 12 Florida State sits in third place after the completion of 36 holes on the first day of the Valspar Augusta Invitational at Forest Hills Golf Club. The Seminoles carded an even-par first round followed by a 1-under par second round to total 1-under for the tournament. No. 9 Golfstat-ranked Charlotte Heath leads the Seminoles at 7-under par after shooting a 1-under par 71 in round one and a 6-under par 66 in round two.
Wake Forest leads the tournament as a team at 13-under par, as one of their own, Rachel Kuehn, totaled a 10-under par 134 to secure a spot at the top of the leaderboard individually.
Junior Charlotte Heath had a promising finish in round one after fighting through a 2-over par front-nine. Heath shot 3-under on the back-nine, capturing two back-to-back birdies on holes No. 13 and 14, and a final birdie on No. 18 that secured a round one finish of a 1-under par 71.
The front-nine proved not to be difficult for just Heath, but the entire 78-player field averaged above-par on the nine, averaging a +0.16.
Heath began her second round with early birdies on the first and third hole, she continued her phenomenal play with two back-to-back birdies on the eighth and ninth hole. Her 4-under par front-nine momentum carried onto the back-nine where she carded one bogey followed by an eagle and a birdie to shoot 6-under in the second round.
Heath is in sole possession of second place at 7-under par. She is only three strokes off the lead heading into the final round.
A shotgun start for both rounds put Alice Hodge on hole No. 3 to start her day. She opened up her first round with two back-to-back birdies followed by another birdie on hole No. 8 to finish the front-nine at 2-under par.
Hodge made the turn and secured another birdie on hole No.11, a 535-yard par 5. She joined four other Seminoles in birdying hole No. 18, from there she parred out to shoot a first round score of 3-under.
Although round two was started with a bogey on hole No. 3 for Hodge, she quickly recovered with her sixth birdie of the day on the sixth hole. Hodge was unable to secure a birdie on the back-nine and shot 3-over par (75) for the second 18 of the day.
She is currently tied for 12th place at even-par.
Senior Amelia Williamson shot a 1-over par 73 to complete round one of the Valspar Augusta Invitational. Starting off on the second hole of Forest Hills Golf Club, she carded a single birdie to shoot 2-over on the front-nine.
Her game proved to be consistent on the back-nine, not carding a single bogey and securing her second birdie of the day on No. 18, a 290-yard par 4.
In round two, Williamson showed her resiliency from round one’s front-nine and shot 2-under on her third nine of the day, carding more birdies on a single-nine than her first round in total.
Although she started the turn off with a bogey, followed by another on the fifteenth, she recuperated with a birdie on hole No. 16 to return to 1-under for the second round. Williamson recorded her only double-bogey of the day on the 18th hole, but ended the day with a par to shoot a 1-over 73 in round two.
She is T22 at 2-over par.
Sophomore Kaylah Williams was one of four Seminoles to shoot over-par on the front-nine, although she fought back with an even-par score on the back-nine to finish round one 3-over par.
Starting round two on the third hole, Williams made two birdies on No. 6 and No. 8 accompanied by two bogeys in between to start the nine off at even-par.
Two birdies on the back-nine gave Williams her best finish of the season, carding an 1-over par 73. She is tied for 34th place at 4-over.
Individual freshman Katherine Cook shot a season-low 2-over par 74 in her round one performance in Augusta. Beginning her round on No. 16, she quickly birdied the 18th hole to find herself 1-under par through her first three holes.
The front-nine showed its difficulties for the Seminoles, as Cook carded two bogeys to shoot 2-over on the nine that totaled 7-over for the team in round one. Florida State had a clutch back-nine as a team, totaling 1-under par in round one for the final nine.
Cook was unable to card a birdie in the second round, shooting 5-over on the front-nine and 1-over par on the back to total a 6-over par 78 for round two. She is T53 with a 8-over par two-round total.
No. 2 Golfstat-ranked Lottie Woad shot the highest round of her career at Florida State, carding a 4-over par 76 in round one. The freshman faced difficulty on the back-nine with a bogey and two unusual double-bogeys to start off her back-nine at 5-over par.
Although the back-nine could have started better, Woad did not waver and captured a birdie following the three-hole hurdle. She parred the rest of her remaining holes to shoot 4-over on the back-nine.
Woad and Heath were the only Seminoles to birdie the hardest hole on the golf course, the 383 par-4 eighth hole.
Round two started off with a birdie for Woad on the second hole, a 355-yard par 4. The rest of her round was encompassed with six bogeys and a birdie, which resulted in a 4-over par (76) second round score. She is T53 at 8-over.
As a team, the Seminoles recorded 31 birdies, the third-highest in the 14-team field. Florida State was one of four teams to record an eagle in the tournament.
Amelia Williamson and Kaylah Williams led Florida State in par-3 scoring, averaging a 3.00 (E). Charlotte Heath had an impressive par 4 scoring average of 3.75 (-5). Heath was also 3-under on par 5’s, securing a Seminole team-low 4.63 average.
The final round of the Valspar Augusta Invitational will begin with a shotgun start at 9:00am ET. Live scoring can be found on golfstat.com. Be sure to keep updated on the Seminoles by following @fsugolf on Twitter and Instagram.