Lewis wins third in a row at Puerto Rico
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FAYETTEVILLE – University of Arkansas senior Stacy Lewis won her third consecutive collegiate tournament bringing home the 2008 Lady Puerto Rico Classic title in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, Tuesday.
Lewis, a The Woodlands, Texas, native, won the Stanford Intercollegiate and the UA Ann Rhoads Intercollegiate in the fall and carded a final round 70 finishing eight under with a near-record 208.
Lewis holds the Arkansas record for lowest round with a 207 set at the Peg Barnard Invitational last year. Tuesday’s 208 is the best round for any Lady Razorback this season.
“It’s hard to know what to say about Stacy,” said Arkansas head coach Shauna Estes-Taylor. “She is just playing such good golf and she seems to get better with each round. She had a couple bogeys on the front nine but birdied every hole on the back. It just says a lot about how good her game is right now.”
Lewis’ numbers have been amazing since winning the NCAA Championship last year. In the four fall tournaments, Lewis opened with three rounds of 69 and bettered that to an opening round 68 at the UA Ann Rhodes. She matched that with a 68 to start the Lady Puerto Rico. In addition she finished the fall four-under for four tournaments playing the first and last events even par and the middle two at two-under each for a 70.92 stroke average.
Freshman Kelli Shean finished her first spring event well and was tied for 21st overall with a 233. The Cape Town, South Africa, native sandwiched a 73 between a pair of 75s finishing seven-over on the par 72, 6,168-yard course. It was her best finish against par this year.
Junior Lucy Nunn finished tied for 44th overall. The Lawton, Okla., native carded a 12-over 228 with rounds of 77-74-77 for Arkansas. Sophomore Tiffany Phelps, playing in just her third collegiate event, posted a career-best 229 (76-76-77) and finished tied for 52nd.
Sophomore Alexandra Schulte rounded out the Arkansas scores with a 238 (68-70-70) to tie for 77th overall.
The Lady Razorbacks slipped to fifth overall as a team but were just one stroke out of a three-way tie for third. Sixteenth-ranked Alabama won the event rebounding with a final round 290 for an 880 (293-297-290). Number 27 Louisiana State was second with an 883 (297-90-296) followed by No. 17 Kent State (299-287-301) and No. 30 TCU (294-300-293) who tied for third with 887.
Arkansas’ final round 299 (296-293-299) gave the sixth-ranked Lady Razorbacks an 888 to tie with No. 11 Purdue 9299-298-291) for fifth. Georgia and South Carolina tied for seventh overall with Tennessee and Florida State rounding out the top 10 in the 18-team field.
“Honestly, I’m a little disappointed in the team finish,” said Estes-Taylor. “We were so close to a better finish. We had 888 shots out there this weekend and just one or two would have made a big difference. I felt at the turn we were in a position to win the tournament and we let it get away in the final holes. But even though we didn’t come out where we wanted, we learned a lot about ourselves as individuals and as a team. The little things really make a difference and we’re coming home to work on those before we go to Florida.”
Arkansas returns to the links March 9-11 at the Central Florida Invitational in Orlando, Fla. For more information about Arkansas golf, please log on to LADYBACKS.COM.
