April 25, 2009
LUBBOCK - Texas A&M's Ashley Freeman shot an even-par 73 on Saturday and shares the individual lead after two rounds of the Big 12 Women's Golf Championship at the Rawls Course.
The Aggies (603) remain in second place and trail No. 4-ranked Oklahoma State (597) by six strokes going into Sunday's final round. Live scoring can be followed online at www.golfstat.com.
A&M had a strong back nine for the second straight round and posted the best score of the day with an 11-over 299. The Aggies were two-under-par on the final nine, making up five strokes on the Cowgirls. On Friday, A&M played the back nine in four-under.
"The girls played great today," A&M Head Coach Trelle McCombs said. "They never got overly-excited and just played their games and let Oklahoma State come back to us. We buckled down on the back nine and finished strong again. Three of the par 5s are reachable in two and the key for us on Sunday is to take advantage of those holes. We haven't done that as a team."
Freeman (72-73=145) and Oklahoma State's Caroline Hedwall (70-75=145) are three strokes ahead of the rest of the field. A&M's Lauren Johnson (78-74=152) and Stephanie Smith (84-78) is tied for 45th.
"Ashley, Sarah and Lauren were all very steady today," McCombs said. "Stephanie didn't play well yesterday but played well today. Alexa played well yesterday but not today, so it has been a good team effort."
Oklahoma is in third at 601, followed by Colorado (622), Kansas (622), Kansas State (622), Missouri (628), Nebraska (629), Texas (629), Baylor (635), Texas Tech (638) and Iowa State (640).
Freeman's even-par round matched the best individual score of the day. She had three birdies and three bogeys, playing the final 13 holes in one-under.
"It was really windy and that made it a day of patience," Freeman said."I just tried to stay patient and keep myself in position. We finished strong again and hopefully we'll take that momentum into tomorrow. I'm just going to keep on doing what I've been doing and try to play steady."
Zwartynski was four-over through 11 holes, but played the last seven holes in three under. Johnson played the back nine in even-par while Smith was even on her final 10 holes.
A&M won consecutive Big 12 titles in 2006 and 2007 before Oklahoma State captured the crown last year. In 2007, A&M trailed the Cowgirls by four strokes going into the final round but rallied to a five-shot victory. Freeman and Johnson were members of that team.
"It reminds me a lot of the 2007 tournament when I was a freshman," Freeman said. "We were in almost the same position as we are now. We want to play well tomorrow and have the same outcome."