Raiders start slow at Mason Rudolph Championship

Friday, September 20

Franklin, TN

All Day

Middle Tennessee

Mason Rudolph Championship

9/20/2019 4:17:00 PM | Women's Golf

By: @MTAthletics

Round 1 Results
Round 2 Pairings

FRANKLIN, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee Women's golf didn't get off to the start it wanted to in a challenging field at Vanderbilt Legends Club on Friday, but the top of the leaderboard remains within reach with the best round of the day standing at just 1-under par by co-leaders Vanderbilt and Houston.

The Blue Raiders battled through some unfortunate miscues to a round of 14-over par 302 to open the Mason Rudolph Championship and find themselves in 13^th place thru 18 holes.

At the same event just a season ago MT opened the weekend with a 15-over par 303 and stood dead last before sparking an impressive comeback. The resurgent play in last year's Mason Rudolph saw the Blue Raiders climb all the way to sixth place before the third and final round was called early due to rain, proving that a comeback isn't out of the question for this squad just yet.

For the second consecutive round, the brightest spot on the course for the Raiders Friday was rookie Molly Bebelaar, who's even par 72 that landed her in a tie for 12^th place individually should give her elder teammates confidence to produce similar rounds in the final two go-arounds.

Sophomore Madison Smith also put together one of the better rounds of her young career, as two bogeys on her final four holes were all that stood between her and another even par round for the Raiders. Her 2-over par 74 has her just outside the Top 30 after round one.

Junior Sophie Burks battled through a tough first nine to finish the day at 4-over par while Caudill sisters Catherine and Caroline carded rounds of 8-over 80 and 9-over 81, respectively, on Friday.

"That was great playing by Molly today and steady golf for Madison and Sophie as well," Head Coach Chris Adams said. "We are not too happy with the end result for the team, but we are going to come out tomorrow and stay positive with two more days ahead of us to turn it around."

Caroline Caudill will lead off for the Blue Raiders on Saturday at 9:55 a.m. followed by younger sister Catherine, Burks, Smith and Bebelaar.

Live scoring for round two can be found at Golfstat.com.

For all the latest information on Middle Tennessee Women's Golf, follow the #BlueRaiders on Facebook (@MTWGolf), Twitter (@MT_WGolf) and Instagram (MT_WGolf).