The night before the final round of the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, Texas women\u2019s golf head coach Laura Ianello told her team to embrace adversity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Heading into the last round with just a three-shot lead against Florida State, she knew the final day wouldn\u2019t be perfect, but all that mattered was staying composed and, as she put it, showing \u201cTexas Fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas women\u2019s golf held off Florida State on Wednesday to win the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, securing its first tournament victory of the season. Capitalizing on a historic round from junior Farah O\u2019Keefe, the Longhorns relied on steady play across the lineup to withstand a late push from the Seminoles.<\/p>\n
The foundation of Texas\u2019 first-place finish was laid on the tournament\u2019s opening day.<\/p>\n
On Monday, O\u2019Keefe carded 7-under 64, tying the tournament course record. After coming off a poor putting performance in the Moon Golf Invitational two weeks ago, O\u2019Keefe spent the lead-up to the tournament sharpening her short game. That practice paid off on hole 18, when O\u2019Keefe drained a long putt to cap off her day.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe really struggled (two weeks ago) with putting,\u201d Ianello said. \u201cAnd so (we) kind of put her in solitary confinement, where she knew she needed to dial in with the putter stick this weekend, and she found it today.\u201d<\/p>\n
But matching a round like that is rarely simple. The same breaks that can push a player up the leaderboard can just as easily disappear the next day. On day two, inconsistency struck O\u2019Keefe, as she posted a 1-under 70 with five birdies and four bogeys, allowing Florida State to chip away at Texas\u2019 eight-shot lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many different variables,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said. \u201cLike, you could get a bad bounce, you get a bad break, you could shank one on 18. There\u2019s a whole bunch of different things that happen in this game, and so to go try to back up the 64 like that, it\u2019s difficult, especially because (of) all the attention that you get after.\u201d<\/p>\n
Led by sophomore Elin Pudas Remler\u2019s 5-under 66, Florida State cut Texas\u2019 lead to three shots heading into the final day.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Florida State briefly tied things up with Texas, bringing the adversity Ianello had warned about the night before. The Longhorns stayed steady, finishing the tournament two shots ahead of the Seminoles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that every time that we tee it up, they can win,\u201d Ianello said. \u201cI think they have been diligent about showing up every day, sticking to what they know will get them better. I\u2019m just so darn proud of this group of women right here because they deserve this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Pudas Remler\u2019s stellar second round, O\u2019Keefe managed to keep herself ahead on day three to win the individual title, finishing just one shot ahead of second place. While some may see her performance as a testament to her skills, to her, it was a testament to her patience.<\/p>\n
\u201cGolf is a staring contest, and you just have to not blink first,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said. \u201cSo I stayed patient, I stuck to what works and I just kept chopping wood.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Longhorns will return to action at home starting March 16 for the Betsy Rawls Invitational in Austin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The night before the final round of the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate, Texas women\u2019s golf head coach Laura Ianello…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-517649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}