The CCU women won the largest college golf event in the U.S. See how many teams they beat
The Coastal Carolina women’s golf team shared the team title Tuesday in the largest collegiate golf tournament in the country.
The Chanticleers shot a 4-under-par 284 in the final round at the 5,984-yard Osprey Point to tie North Florida at 1-over 865 for the team championship in the Kiawah Island Spring Classic, which expanded from 43 to 49 teams this year. Tulsa was third at 8-over 872.
The Chants were playing in their first event of the spring season and were successful with a team effort, having four players in the top 20 but none in the top 10 individually.
Freshman Jenjira Jinangkul of Thailand tied for 10th at 1-under 215, sophomore Frantiska Lunackova of the Czech Republic tied for 13th at 216, and both senior Marie Lunackova of the Czech Republic and freshman Tiffany Arafi of Switzerland tied for 17th at 1-over 217.
“The freshmen are going to be awesome, I’m really excited about this class,” CCU head coach Katie Quinney said. “Marie will be a big loss after the season as a senior, but the freshmen and our sophomores are already performing well so it’s exciting.”
North Florida was led by medalist Sydney Shrader, who closed with a 5-under 67 to win by a shot with a 9-under 207.
The Chants rallied from a 7-over 295 in Monday’s second round.
“They showed so much character,” Quinney said. “We struggled so much on the second day, and as soon as they got in the van they were like, ‘Were ready to leave the round behind and go out and win the tournament tomorrow.”
Three of the four Coastal players whose score counted in the final round made birdies on their final hole to pull the Chants into a tie for the championship.
“We were down pretty much the whole day but we kept fighting and made key birdies at the end and we needed every single one of them,” Quinney said.
In the fall, the Chants finished second in both a 16-team tournament hosted by No. 21 Furman in Greenville and 15-team event hosted by Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Fla., and finished ninth or worse in three of their five events.
The Chants have now won 18 tournaments in Quinney’s 11 seasons, including 12 in the past seven seasons, and have won the Charleston’s Kiawah event in three of the past four years, having not participated last season.
Host College of Charleston, which finished sixth, was the Kiawah event’s only top-50 team in the Golfstat.com rankings at No. 44, though the event featured several top-100 teams including No. 77 CCU, No. 71 North Florida, No. 80 South Florida and No. 83 Tulsa.
Osprey Point and Oak Point (5,977 yards) at Kiawah Island Golf Resort were used in the opening round and the top 25 teams played Osprey on Tuesday.
Other participating teams included Bethune Cookman, Boston University, Bucknell, Butler, Charleston Southern, Dayton, Delaware, Elon, Fairfield, Fairleigh Dickinson, Georgia Southern, Hampton, High Point, Hofstra, Indiana State, IUPUI, Jacksonville, Jacksonville State, Lehigh, Lipscomb, Longwood, Monmouth, Murray State, Navy, North Alabama, UNC Asheville, UNCG, Omaha, Presbyterian, Quinnipiac, Richmond, Sacred Heart, SCAD Savannah, South Dakota, Stetson, Tennessee Tech, Texas Arlington, Towson, USC Upstate, Western Carolina, William & Mary, Wyoming and Youngstown State.
This story was originally published February 26, 2019 at 8:19 PM.
