Birdies were hard to come by in Friday’s opening round of the NCAA Championships for the No. 20 University of Arkansas women’s golf team.
The Razorbacks posted just four of them en route to a 19-over 307, tied for the second-highest score of the day, at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Arkansas is tied with No. 5 San Jose State and No. 6 Oklahoma State for 21st among the 24 teams, with only Vanderbilt (+20) behind them.
“We got off to a slow start today,” Arkansas Coach Shauna Taylor said. “The beauty of this championship is that we have more days to climb the leaderboard.
“We couldn’t get anything going today, but I know we are prepared for the climb up the board. We look forward to the challenge ahead of us.”
No. 19 Texas A&M and No. 17 Auburn, the Razorbacks’ playing partners, found the scoring a little easier. The Aggies led the 12-team morning bunch at 4 over, while Auburn shot 8 over to tie for third with LSU among the morning group.
No. 1 Stanford, which had an afternoon tee time, toured the Raptor Course in 1-over 289, aided by 13 birdies plus an eagle by Rose Zhang, the individual leader at 4-under 68. The Cardinal leads by three strokes over Texas A&M.
Junior Kajal Mistry led the Razorbacks with a 1-over 73 on the 6,340-yard Raptor Course, with bogeys on Nos. 2 and 10 and a lone birdie on the par-5 11th.
Junior Julia Gregg carded a 2 over, with four bogeys and a team-high two birdies.
Arkansas also got counting scores from junior Ela Anacona and freshman Ffion Tynan, who shot matching 8-over 80s. Sophomore Miriam Ayora carded the non-counting score, an 85 that featured a pair of double bogeys.
The Razorbacks’ birdie count was the lowest of the day, two fewer than Oklahoma State’s six.