Arnold Finishes Fourth In Fred Marx Invitational, Bulldogs Fourth Overall :: Samford women's golf looks at a promising year

Sept. 26, 2006

MONROE, La. ---- The Samford University women's golf team saw an impressive performance from freshman Heather Arnold as she finished fourth overall in the Louisiana-Monroe Fred Marx Invitational while helping lead Samford to a fourth overall finish as well.

The Bulldogs shot 317 in the third round of the tournament, bringing their total for the two-day event to 933. Arnold shot 225 overall, with 79 in the third round, only four shots behind the number one golfer of the day. Her scores for the whole tournament were 75-71-79=225.

"Overall, we didn't do as well today as we did yesterday, but we still had a strong tournament," said Head Coach Ian Thompson. "We had a great second round, and steady first and third rounds."

Freshman Bulldog Katelyn Stanier and junior Courtney Warr tied for 18th place with two other participants. Stanier shot 83 in today's third round (80-75-83=238), and Warr shot 82 (81-75-82=238). Sophomore Kellie O'Connell shot 82 in the first two round and 75 in the third round, bringing her total score to 239 and putting her in a tie for 22nd place. Sophomore Maria Troche tied for 24th place, shooting 81 in round three.

"Our best round came from Kellie O'Connell in the third round, shooting 75, which was the best for us today and great for her since her rounds didn't count in the first two," said Thompson.

When the Bulldogs finished their first two rounds yesterday, they sat in third place behind host Louisiana-Monroe and McNeese State. Arnold had a great day, sitting in the top five all day, and finally settling in at second place at the end of the day. After today, the Bulldogs dropped a spot to finish fourth and Arnold fell two spots to finish fourth as well. However, the Samford women were very pleased with their performance.

"I think we have the makings of a great team that will do well this year," said Thompson. "We are going to keep pushing forward. We have a break for a bit, and then we have three tournaments in three weeks."

The Samford Lady Linksters will take a few weeks off to rest, but will head back out to the greens on Oct. 16 as they begin competition in the Chris Banister Fall Golf Classic in Glencoe, Ala. Then they will wrap up the fall season with tournaments at Austin Peay and Troy University.