March 13, 2006
Box Score
Las Vegas, Nev. -
Illinois State's Samantha Richdale fired a two-under-par 70 and sits in a tie for third place among 95 golfers after the first round of the UNLV Rebel Spring Invitational played Monday. The Redbird team score of 312 put the Redbirds in 15th place in the 19-team field with 36 holes remaining on the 6,153-yard Boulder Creek Golf Course.
The Redbirds started on the back half of the course and Richdale had a rare double-bogey six on the 404-yard par four 18th hole to slip from one under to one over par after nine. Making the turn to the front nine, the senior from Kelowna, British Columbia became the only golfer in the tournament to register birdies on No. 1 and No. 3. Those holes jump-started a three-under-par 33 on the front nine for Richdale.
Richdale's performance didn't surprise her coach, Ray Kralis.
"You come to expect Sam to put this kind of round together," said Kralis. "The impressive thing today is that she didn't really feel like she had her `A' game going. But to battle through that and still shoot a 70 ... well, that's just the way she is capable of playing golf."
Only Indiana's Shannon Johnson, one of the individual co-leaders, scored better on the front nine (32) than Richdale. Johnson and Long Beach State's Kay Hoey both carded 67s to lead the tournament. Hoey's Long Beach State team tops the team standings with a 289--one stroke ahead of host UNLV. The tournament features five of the top 50 teams in the nation led by the Rebels, who are ranked No. 9, along with No. 20 Long Beach, No. 23 New Mexico, No. 34 Brigham Young and No. 47 San Jose State. The Redbirds are No. 60.
After Richdale, the other Redbird players struggled.
Hilary Anderson's roller-coaster round included taking a triple-bogey eight--the dreaded `snowman' named for the shape of the number on the scorecard--on No. 5, a 476-yard par five. But Anderson recovered fast enough to score her second birdie of the day on No. 6. Anderson and Ashlie Rose each shot 80 for the day. Despite those totals, Kralis is encouraged.
"Both Hilary and Ashlie played better than their scores reflect and I'm counting on those scores to go up," said Kralis. "I witnessed Hilary's `snowman' and, believe it or not, her sixth shot on that hole was a great shot. If you didn't see the scorecard, you wouldn't know she was having a `big-number' hole. She didn't let a few shots get her down. She held her head up and came back strong, and showed it on the next hole. We can all learn from that."
Olivia Campos shot an 82 and Marci Hill an 83 for the Redbirds. After Richdale, all four Redbirds on the course are in the bottom third of the 95-player field. But Kralis considers them in the right position for a comeback.
"Early on in the season, you're going to have some struggles and some big-number holes," said Kralis. "You're also going to have some mistakes, but it's important to battle back and stay confident. This game can really take some shots at your confidence, but I think we can show the kind of improvement we need right now in these next two rounds."
The 54-hole event continues with another round on Tuesday and the finals on Wednesday.
