Kelli Ann Strand tied the school 54-hole tournament record with a 202 (-14) to win the individual title and lead the Nebraska women’s golf team to a runner-up finish at the season-opening Green Wave Classic in New Orleans on Tuesday.
Strand, a true freshman from Challis, Idaho, produced rounds of 67 and 64 on Monday, before adding a final-round 70 on Tuesday to claim the individual crown and match Husker All-American Kate Smith’s school-record 202 at the Westbrook Spring Invitational in Peoria, Ariz. (Feb. 25-26, 2018).
Strand, who fired a 29 (-7) over the back nine in Monday’s second round, opened with a 31 (-5) on the front nine Tuesday morning to take firm control of the individual leaderboard. She hit the turn to the back at 17-under-par through 45 holes, after playing the back nine at 11-under two rounds Monday. However, she ran into trouble on No. 10 in the final round, taking her only double-bogey of the tournament. She quickly recovered with a birdie on No. 11, but it was her only birdie on the back nine to go along with five pars and two bogeys on Tuesday.
The team race came down to the wire, with LSU overtaking the Huskers on the back nine to claim a three-stroke victory. Nebraska was unable to come away with the team title despite shattering the school record with an 835 (-29) team score over three rounds. The performance by the Huskers smashed the previous team mark of 843 at the 2018 Westbrook Spring Invitational.
“We fought really hard all the way to the very end,” Nebraska Head Coach Jeanne Sutherland said. “Kelli Ann played some phenomenal golf. Her presence on the course was really good and she did a great job of just staying in the moment and not letting anything get to big for her. It was also great to see Megan Whittaker and Lindsey Thiele play such solid golf for three rounds. I got to just sit back and watch some great golf this week. Our players competed and trained really hard to prepare for the tournament and I was able to just let them play and not worry too much about how they were playing throughout the tournament. We definitely had some real positives coming out of our first tournament and we have some good things to build on…
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