Lady'Back linksters move up in second round

Jump to agate FAYETTEVILLE – The eighth-ranked University of Arkansas women’s golf team shaved four strokes off their first round total moving up two spots at the Northrup Grumman Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes, Calif., Tuesday. “It was a little colder and windy today,” said Arkansas head coach Kelley Hester, “and we couldn’t quite get it going.” Arkansas sophomore Stacy Lewis and senior Courtney Mahon both fired rounds of 74 Tuesday. Lewis (78-74) moves into a tie for 16th along with teammate senior Amanda McCurdy (75-77) with a two-day 152. Mahon jumps up into a tie for 31st overall with a 154 (80-74). Senior Lindsey Hinshaw counted an 80 today and is tied for 50th overall with 158 (78-80) while sophomore Ashley Medders is tied for 65th with a 163 (78-85). “Ashley was really sick last night,” said Hester. “She was up all night and I thought I was going to have to pull her off the golf course today. She really toughed it out and hung in there. I was proud of her.” Arkansas jumped two spots Tuesday and some other schools made moves as well. Seventh-ranked Southern California moved into the top spot with a 591 leap-frogging No. 9 Arizona State who is in second at 592. No. 33 Oklahoma State continues to play well and is third with a 598 followed by No. 20 California with 603, and No. 11 Wake Forest with 604 to round out the top five. Second-ranked UCLA sits in sixth place with a 611, followed by No. 8 Arkansas with a 614. No. 19 Ohio State made the biggest jump moving from 13th to a tie for eighth. They, along with no. 16 Stanford and No. 25 Florida are tied with 616. Fifth-ranked Pepperdine and No. 18 Arizona are tied for 11 with 618 with No. 15 Washington (633) and No. 23 New Mexico (652) rounding out the field. “We definitely haven’t gotten the most out our golf rounds yet,” said Hester. “Courtney had a much better day. We’ve hit a lot of really good golf shots here but just haven’t shaken the competitive rust off yet. This is the type of golf course that the scores get better each time you play it and I think we’ll be even better Wednesday.”