MANHATTAN, Kan. – Natalie Petersen led the Georgia Southern women's golf team with a 77, and the Eagles moved to ninth in the second round of the Marilynn Smith Invitational Monday at Colbert Hills.
Tournament host Kansas State (+7) maintained its lead, and Rutgers (+20) shot 1-under as a team to move four spots up into second place. Kansas (+23) moved up two spots into third, and Tulsa (+24) is in fourth. The Eagles (+53) are five strokes behind Central Arkansas (+48) and 11 back of Little Rock (+42).
Ansley Bowman (+8) shot a 79 and is tied for 19th, and Petersen (+12) is tied for 33rd.
Ella Ofstedahl shot a 78 today,
Ashlynn Joyner posted an 85 for the Eagles and
Sarah Noonan carded an 86.
The story
Ofstedahl, who teed off on hole 2, had a tremendous finish to her round. The sophomore eagled the par-5, 453-yard 18th and then eagled the 530-yard, par-5 1st hole.
Petersen played her final four holes 1-under, and Bowman played her final four holes 1-over. Joyner parred her final three holes, and Noonan was 1-over on her final four.
Quotable from coach Emily Kuhfeld
"Unfortunately, today's performance moved us the wrong way on the leaderboard, and we have our work cut out for us tomorrow. We did have some highlights, led by Ella's eagle, eagle finish! That's the first time that has happened for our program. Ella had a rough start, but was able to turn it around today."
"Natalie did a good job keeping her round together today. We need to give ourselves a better opportunity to score from the fairway on our approach shots tomorrow, and we will make up some ground."
Next up
The Eagles tee it up at noon local time tomorrow in a shotgun start for the third and final round. GS is paired with Little Rock.
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