The Ole Miss men’s and women’s golf teams were in action on Monday and Tuesday as both teams held top-25 positions in the Golfweek/Sagarin Collegiate Rankings coming into their tournaments.
The women’s team continued a recent streak of high-level play and placed second in the Illini Invitational at Medinah. The Rebels, who ranked No. 14 nationally as of Monday, played a brilliant round of golf on Tuesday morning. Their total of 275 was good for 13-under par and moved them from eighth place after the first two rounds to second place overall. Each of the five Rebels in play shot under par for the third round. Ole Miss also led the tournament with 52 total birdies.
Senior Kennedy Swann placed first individually at the Illini Invitational, shooting 9-under par for the tournament with an overall 207. She was on fire on Medinah’s par 4 holes, shooting an overall 7-under on those specific holes throughout the tournament, and led the Rebels with her incredible play in the first round with a 4-under 68 and in the third round with a 5-under 67.
Fellow senior Pi-Lillebi Hermansson also placed in the top 10 of individual scores, tying for eighth with a 4-under overall score of 212. Julia Johnson, Andrea Lignell, and Conner Beth Ball finished out the lineup for the Rebels with scores of 215, 221 and 222 respectively.
The showing should improve upon an already encouraging start to the season for Ole Miss after a victory and a third place showing in their first two tournaments of the year.
Meanwhile, the men’s team fought through some consistency struggles as they finished eighth at the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. They shot an overall score of 860, which was 20-over par for the tournament.
“We shot ourselves in the foot too many times with a lot of things that are uncharacteristic of this team that we’ve seen this year so far,” head coach Chris Malloy said after the third round.
In each round, a different Rebel took center stage. In the first round, sophomore Sarut Vongchaisit led the way with a 5-under par 65, tied with two others for the top overall score of the round. However, later that afternoon Vongchaisit would lose his momentum and fall to an overall score of 140 after a 5-over second round score of 75.
Sophomore Jackson Suber stepped up his game after a 2-over first round to shoot a 5-under 65 in the second round, keeping the Rebels within striking distance for the final round.
The Rebels never made their move, despite freshman Veeti Mahonen’s performance on the final day with a 3-under par 67, and finished sandwiched between Arkansas and Alabama at eighth. Suber would finish tied for 15th with his even showing, while Vongchaisit finished tied for 24th.
The men’s team will get right back to it this weekend as they head to Jonesborough, Tennessee, for the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate from Friday to Sunday. Meanwhile, the women’s team has a longer break before they pick up play again on Oct. 20 at the Jim West Challenge in San Marcos, Texas.
