Macon, Ga. – Western Carolina freshman Amy Wooten climbed five positions in the final standings on Tuesday in recording the best finish of her young career, posting a career-best 54-hole score of 228 in placing in a 24th-place tie as the Catamounts came home 12th in their final event of the fall semester.
Opening with a bogey on the par-4 12th, Wooten rebounded with a pair of birdies on the par-4 13th and par-5 17th to move to 1-under par. The Clinton, N.C., product finished with four bogeys and eight pars to shoot 3-over par 75 on the day, 228 for the round. Wooten finished tied for third in the field with 37 pars over the 54-hole event.
Sophomore Hazel Martin charted her best round of the tournament with a 5-over par 77 on Tuesday, jumping seven spots into a tie for 50th overall at 237, her best three-round score of the 2018 fall. Martin finished with a team-best six birdies – three coming over the final 18 holes. Junior Brianna Plummer slid five spots into a tie for 56th at 239, likewise carding her best 54-hole score of the semester. A product of Shelby, N.C., Plummer led WCU with 30 pars.
Rounding out WCU's scoring five was sophomore Maya White up two spots into a tie for 65th overall at 244 while Cameron Wood finished 73rd with a final score of 256.
Mercer cruised to the team championship by 22 strokes over the runner-up, Toledo, which overtook Eastern Kentucky in the final round. The Bears finished with a team score of 6-over par 870 while Toledo finished at 892 and EKU at 898. Troy finished fourth with a score of 903 and Georgia Southern rounded out the top five at 910.
Spurring Toledo's rally to the runner-up spot was the play of individual medalist, Pinyada Kuvanun who closed her final round with a 5-under par score of 67 to shoot 210 for the two-day event, edging Mercer's Terese Romeo (211) by a stroke.
The conclusion of the Idle Hour Collegiate coincides with the closing of WCU's fall semester which despite the loss of the season-opening ECU's Pirate Collegiate Classic did feature four events as first-year head coach Courtney Gunter was able to add the Terrier Intercollegiate in early October. The Idle Hour Collegiate was also the third-consecutive week the Catamounts were in action to close the fall portion of their schedule – a marathon of 144 holes of golf over to wrap-up the fall semester.
Western Carolina is scheduled to return to action Feb. 24-26 at the Edwin Watts / Kiawah Island Classic between the Osprey and Oak Point Courses in Kiawah Island, S.C. – the Catamounts' second seasonal event held in that area of the South Carolina Lowcountry.
12 – Western Carolina – 320-312-311 = 943 (+79)
T24 – Amy Wooten – 80-73-75 = 228 (+12)
T50 – Hazel Martin – 79-81-77 = 237 (+21)
T56 – Brianna Plummer – 82-77-80 = 239 (+23)
T65 – Maya White – 79-86-79 = 244 (+28)
73 – Cameron Wood – 85-81-90 = 256 (+40)
