The Irish overcame a weak start to reach a fourth-place finish with a score of 10-over par 874 at the Clover Cup in Mesa, Arizona this past weekend. Irish head coach Susan Holt said she was pleased with the experience of the team’s fifth year hosting the tournament.
“It was a great opportunity for us,” Holt said. “We know the weather is going to be good this time of year and we can get a full week of practice in. And it’s a tournament round as well, so it’s great to host and be a part of that.”
The team began with a shaky first round on Friday. Freshman Isabella DiLisio was the team’s top player on day one with a one-under par 71. Senior captain Talia Campbell shot a two-over-par 74, while freshmen Emma Albrecht and Maddie Rose Hamilton, and junior Jordan Ferreira all finished with matching scores of 77. Holt said her players spent extra time on the driving range and putting green following the first round.
“I think the bright spot was they did a good job overcoming the disappointment of the first round,” Holt said. “We got ourselves in a hole that was really tough to dig out of, but I thought they really made an effort to do that. They played two more good rounds, and we had a lot of good contributions across the roster.”
The three teams ahead of the Irish were SMU with a six-under par 858, TCU at a two-over par 866, and Oklahoma at a nine-over par 873. Only one stroke separated the Sooners and the Irish. Holt said she considered the tournament challenging but doable, but was frustrated with Notre Dame's final finish
“On paper we definitely should have won the tournament,” Holt said. “But that’s golf, you know. We’ve got really good players, but we had a hard time with poor scores … It happens [and] it just so happened it all happened on the same day. We had a couple kids that took bad swings on a few holes. We had a couple kids who would probably make different decisions as far as they were planning to attack the golf course, if they had to do it over again. The adjustments were just a little too late.”
Campbell had her fourth top-10 finish of the season, coming in at ninth place with an even-par 216. Hamilton closed strong for the Irish with a pair of birdies on her last two holes, and hit a 69 on the final round to rise to a 17th-place tie at four-over par 220.
Looking ahead, Holt said the team will try to improve before its next event.
“The goal of the break was to get good solid practice in, and I just hope that will start to pay dividends as we look ahead to this busy month,” Holt said. “All of our players have things they need to work on. We’re focusing on those little things to fine tune as we get ready for next weekend at LSU.”
Notre Dame will go on the road again for the LSU Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday.
