LEXINGTON, Ky. — Starting the day nine strokes back of the NCAA Championship cutline, Vanderbilt women’s golf fired a 6-under 282 in the second round to climb into sixth place on Tuesday at Keene Trace Golf Club.
The Commodores’ 6-under card was the second lowest of the day, trailing only regional leader Florida State at 7-under. The stellar performance all but erased Vanderbilt’s deficit on fifth place, as the Dores will enter Wednesday’s final round just one shot behind the final NCAA Championship qualifying position after vaulting four spots on the leaderboard.
“That’s the team we’ve been waiting to see since about mid-February,” head coach Greg Allen said. “I was so encouraged to see us clean up what we didn’t do very well yesterday. We found fairways and took advantage of the par fives today. It was a team effort from start to finish.”
Junior Lynn Lim led the effort with a 4-under-par 68. Lim bogeyed her second hole of the day, then reeled off five birdies and 11 pars the rest of the round. She climbed to seventh on the individual leaderboard at 1-under for the regional.
Sophomore Ava Merrill and Freshman Angelina Tolentino finished the day at 1-under while junior Tillie Claggett rounded out the scoring at even-par. Sara Im closed strong to finish at 2-over.
Starting on the challenging back nine, Vanderbilt dropped four strokes in the opening two holes of the day and fell as far as 14 strokes off the cut line. The Dores steadied, however, reaching the turn at 3-over as a team. On the front side of Champion Trace, Vandy made its move as all five Dores went at least 2-under-par in their second nine of the day.
“I was really proud of how they stayed patient on our front side, even when we were making some bogeys and everyone on the other side were making birdies,” said Allen. “We dropped as far as 14 shots back of the cut line, but it was so good to see them get hot on our backside and absolutely light it up.”
Vandy’s move began on Champion Trace’s fourth hole. Lim and Im birdied the fourth for the Dores before Tolentino eagled the par-5 fifth. Merrill, Claggett and Im also birdied the fifth before three Dores trimmed a stroke on the sixth. Vandy notched two more birdies on the seventh to collectively drop 12 shots over four holes.
“We have some momentum after today and talked about how we need to use that advantage tomorrow,” Allen said. “There will certainly be some uncomfortable moments throughout…
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