After 54 holes of golf and three playoff holes, freshman Ashley Armstrong came out on top of her sudden-death playoff with Louisville freshman Emily Haas as the Big East champion.
The third round ended with Armstrong and Haas tied with an overall score of 223. In the first playoff hole, Armstrong had a bad first drive, but was able to come back and match Haas' bogey. The second playoff hole ended with both players ringscoring par before Armstrong nabbed the tournament title with a birdie on the third playoff hole. As a team however, Notre Dame fell just short of consecutive Big East titles. Armstrong had mixed feelings about the tournament victory.
"It hasn't really hit yet," Armstrong said. "Obviously I would have rather had the team win because that's what we came for. It would have been nice to have that too but I guess this is awesome. Maybe it will hit me in a few days. I feel okay."
With a team score of 910, the Irish finished one stroke behind South Florida.
"It is incredibly disappointing the way it happened," Irish coach Susan Holt said. "We just didn't get it done. I can't think of a worse way to lose: to be so close and come up one shot short."
Senior Becca Huffer and sophomore Kristina Nhim were right behind Armstrong in fifth and sixth place with total scores of 226 and 228 respectively.
Going into the final round, the Bulls were up six strokes and were barely able to hold off the surging Irish. Holt said the second round contributed to coming up short in the final round.
"We didn't finish well and we lost five shots in the last two holes," Holt said. "We could have gone in one down but instead we started the third round six down."
Holt said the final round consisted of sloppy and careless play.
"We had four putts and three putts and that should not happen," Holt said. "We gave [USF] every opportunity to stay in it and they took advantage of it."
In coming up short, Notre Dame missed out on an automatic bid to the NCAA championship. Now, the Irish must wait for a call from the NCAA about if they will be competing in the tournament.
"We hope we will make the NCAA tournament," Holt said. "I feel like we're closer to being in than out but we certainly did this to ourselves. There wouldn't be any anticipation if we had got it done. We will keep practicing this week and wait for our call for the tournament on Monday from the selection committee."
If the Irish make the NCAA championship, they will compete at the Vanderbilt Legends golf course in Franklin, Tenn., on May 23.
Contact Isaac Lorton at
ilorton @nd.edu
