Lendl Tied For Lead After First Round of Cougar Classic, UF Tied For Second

Sunday, September 9

Charleston, S.C.

12:00 AM

Florida Gators

Cougar Classic Round 1

Lendl Tied For Lead After First Round of Cougar Classic, UF Tied For Second

Sunday, September 9, 2012 | Women's Golf

On the backs of two under par rounds by senior Isabelle Lendl (Goshen, Conn.) and sophomore Camilla Hedberg (Sitges, Spain), the No. 9 University of Florida women's golf team sits in a tie for second place after round one at the Cougar Classic with a combined team score of 2-under (286). Lendl actually holds a tie for the overall individual lead after the first day of play after carding a 5-under, 67. A single bogey was the only blemish on a round that included four birdies and an eagle amongst a tough field.

For Hedberg, her round was nearly as strong also as she only had one bogey on the par five, 4^th hole and was able to counter that with four birdies in the round to finish with a 3-under, 69, her first sub-70 round of the year. The sophomore will join Lendl in the top five when the second round of the tournament begins on Monday. As a team, UF holed 11 birdies and Lendl was one of only three players to have an eagle in the first round.

“I'm very proud of the way Isabelle (Lendl) and Camilla (Hedberg) played,” Florida head coach Emily Bastel said. “They have been working hard and it's great to see their hard work pay off for them.”

Lendl had a very standard start to her day as she birdied No. 4 and bogeyed No. 8 to make the turn at even par, but the back nine was where she made her move. After birdieing the par four 10^th and par three 13^th, Lendl went even lower and holed out an eagle at No. 15. The back nine was capped with another birdie at the par five 18^th, which was what put Lendl at the top of the individual leaderboard. The 67 was just one shot off her career best, which occurred in last year's NCAA Championships.

Hedberg began her fall season the right way with a birdie on the very first hole, but a bogey at No. 4 brought her back even, midway through the front nine. She did rebound nicely with a birdie at the par three, 6^th, to be in red numbers at the turn. Two more birdies were added to her score by the end of her round to finish at 69 and in a tie for third place individually. The sub-70 round for Hedberg is a much better start than what was seen a year ago in the very same tournament where Hedberg fired a 71 in the first round, but followed that with a 67 en route to a third place finish.

Rounding out the remaining Gators lineup, senior Mia Piccio (Bacolod City, Philippines) is tied for 33^rd with a 1-over, 73, and sophomore Anna Young (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada), making her first start as a Gator, had a rough start, but was able to finish strong with a 5-over, 77, good for a tie of 88^th. Making her collegiate debut was freshman Ursa Orehek (Domzale, Slovenia), who shot a 7-over, 79, to be tied for 108^th going into the second round.

“The course played fairly straight forward although the wind picked up towards the middle of the round,” Bastel said. “The girls did a good job of staying patient. Tomorrow our goal is to be a bit more decisive, but to keep with the strategy of fairways and greens.”

No. 3 Southern Cal leads all teams after the first round of play with a 3-under, 285. No. 5 Duke and No. 12 Virginia join Florida in the second spot, while 11^th-ranked Georgia rounds out the top five in the team leaderboard with a 1-under, 287. Out of the nine SEC teams competing in this weekend's tournament, UF had the best score after the first day's play.

Play will continue tomorrow with the first groups teeing off at 7:50 a.m. Live scoring as well as first round results are available on GolfStat.com and results will also be posted at CofCSports.com. A complete recap with results will be posted on GatorZone.com following the day's play.

For complete coverage of UF's women's golf program visit GatorZone.com, follow @GatorZoneGolf on Twitter and 'like' the University of Florida Women's Golf page on Facebook.

Team Scores After Round 1

Place School Score

1 USC 285 (-3)

T2 Duke 286 (-2)

T2 Florida 286 (-2)

T2 Virginia 286 (-2)

5 Georgia 287 (-1)

6 Auburn 288 (E)

T7 Alabama 289 (+1)

T7 Vanderbilt 289 (+1)

9 NC State 290 (+2)

10 Wisconsin 292 (+4)