HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (March 4, 2025) – Despite difficult weather conditions on Tuesday, the University of North Alabama women's golf team strung together one of the best finishes in program history on the final day of the Huntsville.org Intercollegiate at Hampton Cove.
The Lions finished second place with a 49-over-par 913 scorecard. This was just six strokes off the lead, as Troy won the competitive tournament with a 907 stroke score.
Today's second place finish marks the third-time UNA has finished in the top two of a tournament since the start of the program in 2018. The other two tournaments included second place finishes at the Huntsville.org Intercollegiate in Spring 2023 and the APSU Intercollegiate in Fall 2023.
Entering the final day, UNA was just three strokes behind Troy for the lead. UNA finished the last few holes of the second round Tuesday morning, which was delayed due to darkness on Monday afternoon.
However, the final round brought adversity for all involved. UNA head coach Neil Self described the conditions as "top three toughest all-time" he has seen in his seven seasons as head coach. While the Lions were on their seventh hole of the final round, wind gusts reached up to 45 miles per hour. However, UNA powered through and maintained its second-place spot.
All five starters for UNA finished within the top 28 of the 60-player leaderboard, including sixth place finishes for both senior Hannah Dees and true freshman Olivia Whittle. Dees finished atop the leaderboard after one round at two-under and went on to finish sixth with an 11-over-par 227 card. Whittle had the second-best round of any player in round three with a three-over-par 75 — tying Dees at 227 with a steady 75-77-75 card.
Two more Lions cracked the top 20 on Tuesday, as freshman Sirichaya Chanpen shot 18-over-par 234 and senior Jahnavi Prakhya trailed her by one stroke at 19-over-par 235 for 20th.
Making her debut, freshman Elsa Steinarsdottir had a rock steady last round despite the weather. She finished with 15 pars over 18 holes to end with a four-over-par 76 in the final round. She shot 14 spots up the final leaderboard with a final card of 22-over-par 238 for 28th.
UNA had six birdies on the day, including three from Whittle. The England native was one of the few golfers to record a birdie on the back nine during the heavy wind gusts, doing so on hole 12.
Samford joined Troy and UNA for an all-Alabama top three, finishing nine strokes back of UNA at +58. The rest of the leaderboard included UNC Asheville, Tennessee Tech, Belmont, Presbyterian, West Georgia and Oakland in eighth, Bellarmine, Southern Illinois and Eastern Illinois. UNA beat Eastern Illinois by over 100 strokes.
The Lions are back in action next Sunday at the Chris Banister Golf Classic, hosted by Jacksonville State at RTJ Silver Lakes in Glencoe, Ala.
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