Led by a 2-under par score from Emily Royer, Georgia State finished day one of the 43rd annual Furman Lady Paladin Invitational in 11th place among the 18 teams. Twelve of the 18 teams are top 100-ranked and six top-50 ranked.
Royer, a freshman from Maidstone, England, enjoyed an eagle and two birdies in her round of 70 on the par-72, 6,266-yard Furman University course. Georgia State carded a team 303 score. Host Furman, ranked No. 77 leads at 2-under 286 on its home course. No. 29 Wake Forest is second at even par 288. The next four teams behind those two are No. 38 Kansas, No. 63 Texas Tech, No. 31 Florida State and No. 25 North Carolina.
“We can feel pleased with our improvement from last week and our play today against a challenging field on a tough course,” head coach Cathy Mant said. “It's exciting to see Emily Roper's play. She gives herself lots of opportunities to score low. We're a young team and I'm pleased with their great attitude. We had a game plan today and they tried to stick with it. Sometimes they just want to think too much, but they really did hit some good shots today.”
In addition to Royer's 70, Georgia State got a 76 from junior Julie Lied, a 78 from sophomore Jooeun Bae, a 79 from senior Lauren Court and an 80 from sophomore Solene Le Coz. “I'm pleased with Julie Lied's play these first two weeks as she is turning things around and becoming much more consistent,” Mant said.
Notebook:
- Georgia State had an eagle and seven birdies among the top five scorers today
- Royer now has played four collegiate rounds of golf and scored under par in two of them
- Lied has posted three rounds of 76 and one of 77 in her first four of the year
- Today's 303 team score topped last week's 312 for best round of the young season
- The Panthers were No. 72 in the Golfweek preseason poll
- Tuesday's play will begin with at 8:51 tee time and then Wednesday's final round will be a shotgun start.
