Northwood Wins Women's Golf Tournament
PORT ST. LUCIE, FL— They say streaks have to end sometime and this streak was no different as the Embry Riddle women’s golf team finished as a runner up instead of the conference champion. That honor went to Northwood University as they were able to hold on to their nine-shot first round lead to win by seven strokes over Embry Riddle.
Northwood shot a 307 in the first round and a 309 in the second to finish with a two-round total of 616, which was 40-over-par on the par-72, 6,0670-yard course. The Seahawks led the field in birdies made (14) and pars made (108), while scoring the lowest on par 4’s by 10 shots and par 5’s by three shots.
“It’s great,” remarked Northwood Head Coach Brandon Miller. "They deserve it and I’m looking forward to heading to Tennessee,” he said, making reference to the Women’s NAIA Championships, which is being held at Link Hills Golf Club in Greeneville, Tennessee.
After shooting 318 in the first round, Embry-Riddle fired a tournament low 305 in the second to finish with a two-day score of 623. South Carolina Beaufort was third with a 626 (317-309), followed by SCAD Savannah (316-321=637), Webber International (336-358-694) and Warner (380-368=748).
Individual medalist honors went to South Carolina Beaufort’s Kelli Nakano, a sophomore from Cave Creek, Ariz. She overcame a two-shot deficit going into Tuesday's final round to fire an impressive 72, which was the lowest round of the tournament for the ladies by three shots, and finished with a two-day total of 149 (77-72). Nakano was the only female player to play the par 5’s under par going -1 on the tournament. She had four birdies during the two day event recording 23 par’s on the way to victory.
“I never thought I would be in contention to win,” said Nakano with a smile going from ear to ear. “This is pretty amazing. I expected a top-10 finish, so this really is a surprise and I’m really happy.”
The common theme echoed from the golfers was that if you made a mistake on this Pete Dye golf course you were going to pay for it.
“Yesterday I think I took to many risks, I just wanted to play safe and consistent [today].” Nakano continued, “There are some spots where you know you cannot go to. It just about playing safe here.” Like a true golfer Nakano thinks that her short game can get better and she plans to work on that before heading to Nationals.
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Player of the Year:
Nikki Stewart (SCAD Savannah)
Coach of the Year:
Maria Lopez (Embry-Riddle)
Champion of Character:
Nikki Stewart
All-Conference Team:
Fabys A. Barreto Guzman (Embry-Riddle)
Zala Pia Jenko (Embry-Riddle)
Nikki Stewart (SCAD Savannah)
Andrea Perez (SCAD Savannah)
Kelli Nakano (USCB)
Kaitlin O'Sullivan (USCB)
Melanie Roux (Northwood)
Emeile Andersson (Northwood)
Ceci Rezk (Northwood)
Mikaela Lyander (Webber International)