By Kaitlyn MullisSports Writer
The Lady Catamounts golf team placed 13 in a 19 team field at the Palmetto Intercollegiate at the par 72, 5,955-yard Oak Point Golf Course, located on Kiawah Island, South Carolina on Oct. 28. The finish ended Western’s fall season,
Western Carolina had two golfers end in the top 20 at the tournament. Catamount Desiree Karlsson posted her third top 10 finish of the season, placing eighth, four strokes off first place at 228. The Swedish-born junior followed up her opening round score of 75 with rounds of 77 and 76, respectively, to lead the Lady Catamount golf team. Her teammate, freshman Blaire Minter, finished in a three-way tie for 20th with a total score of 232.
Josefine Sundh, a sophomore, finished tied for 54th with an ending score of 242. Freshman Rachel Nelson ended the tournament tied for 63rd with a score of 246 and Ashley Shinn, also a Catamount freshman, finished in 88th and posted a total score of 263.
2008 Fall Season Recap
The Lady Catamounts’ golf team’ had an outstanding fall season playing in the Southern Conference. The team was led by its strong players to a tournament championship in September’s Great Smokies Intercollegiate golf tournament, where the team broke a tournament three-year old single-round scoring record by two strokes (578). The team played in five major tournaments this season, and looks ahead to six tournaments in the spring season, ending with the SoCon championship in late April at the Moss Creek Resort in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
Individual accomplishments for the Western Carolina golf team are just as impressive. Freshman Blaire Minter, a Marietta, Georgia native, was named the Southern Conference Women’s Golfer for the month of September and finished in first place at that month’s Draper Valley Intercollegiate golf tournament, her first ever collegiate championship. Sophomore Josefine Sundh led her team to a top-10 place finish in October’s Starmount Fall Classic, hosted by UNC Greensboro, where she individually placed tenth. Junior Desiree Karlsson, a two-time member of the all-conference golf team and winner of the Southern Conference Freshman of the Year in the 2006-2007 season, also helped the golf team in their successful fall season.
The golf team returns to action on February 21 at the Kiawah Island Women’s Intercollegiate Tournament, hosted by the College of Charleston.
Their spring season includes tournaments that the team will co-host with other conference teams. They host the Low Country Intercollegiate Tournament with Wofford College at the Moss Creek Resort on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, in March and will host with Appalachian State University the Mimosa Hills Women’s Intercollegiate Tournament at the Mimosa Hills Golf and Country Club in Morganton, North Carolina.
