By Brian Farrell, QBSN Staff Writer
Quinnipiac women’s golf made history on Tuesday winning its first tournament at the QU Invitational.
“I coached the men’s team for three years and we never won a tournament, and this is the third year for the women and we had never won a tournament,” head coach John O’Connor said. “This is huge. It’s great for the program.”
Freshman Krissy Unger also made QU history as she became the first Bobcat to medal at a tournament. Unger’s two-day total (156) was good enough for a first place finish.
While Unger led the way for the Bobcats, it took an all around team effort for the win.
“Jenn Whaley had a tough day on the second day,” O’Connor said. “But as it turned out we threw out her score on the second day and used Ketcheson, Unger, Russell, and the high score was an 85 from Taylor Lambrou.”
The two-day QU Invitational was held at TPC River Highlands and The Farms. TPC is more famously known as the home for the PGA Traveler’s Championship.
“Everybody had trouble with the course,” O’Connor said. “The greens were lightning fast and TPC can give you a lot of trouble … TPC basically played the same way that it does for the Traveler’s.”
But it wasn’t just TPC that gave the Bobcats some difficulty. According to O’Connor, The Farms was even more dangerous on day two.
“If you don’t put your approach shot in the right spot and have a downhill putt to the pin, you can easily leave the ball off the green. So there was a lot of danger on the green, but the course was in great shape.”
Following day one, the Bobcats were three strokes back of Merrimack College.
“We knew we had a chance to catch Merrimack and we wanted to try and keep everyone calm and tell them to play the game that each of them are capable of,” O’Connor said.
In addition to staying calm, Quinnipiac also had the extra comfort of playing on familiar courses.
“We had seen the courses enough that it felt like we had a home course advantage.”
A strong second day from the Bobcats top golfers, including a 77 for Unger and an 82 for Kayla Ketcheson was good enough to pull five strokes ahead of Merrimack for the program’s first ever win.
While the win is a special moment for the team, O’Connor believes that this tournament will be just as big for the team’s future.
“In future years this tournament will be the biggest tournament on the East just because of those two courses. Very rarely do collegiate girls get to play on a PGA event course.”
The fall season is over for the Bobcats but there is a long winter of training ahead.
“On Monday we start strength and conditioning,” O’Connor said smiling.
