After a record-setting first round, NC State women’s golf placed third at the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational.
It wasn’t just any old third place finish. The Ruth’s Chris featured a stacked field, with No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 6 South Carolina, No. 16 Auburn, No. 17 Duke, No. 20 Kentucky and No. 21 North Carolina all in the mix. Auburn came out on top and Duke placed second.
As it was coming down to the wire, the Pack had a chance to vie for second. On the final hole of the tournament, with the Wolfpack down by one stroke to the Blue Devils, standout sophomore Marie Eline Madsen stepped up to the 18th tee. After a drive 20 yards past her competitors, and an approach that gave her a 15 footer for the tie on UNC Finley Golf Course’s second-toughest hole, her putt just missed the mark.
“Marie knew [the situation],” said head coach Darby Sligh. “Sometimes you make them, sometimes you don’t, but I think it’s us putting ourselves in this position as many times as we can. And I think this group is starting to believe that they belong at the top, and I think for four top 20 wins, that’s the thing we need to kind of keep that momentum going.”
Madsen led the surging Pack with a third place finish of her own, shooting 3-under throughout the tournament. This marks her third top-five finish in three tournaments as the Danish phenom continues to lead the Pack to contention. A few weeks after representing her nation at the World Amateur Team Championships in Singapore, Madsen stayed red-hot.
Sitting at the top of the leaderboard from the start, she shot 3-under on Friday to end the day in first place. Right behind her, freshman Ellie Hildreth also found her groove, shooting 2-under to hold the second place position after Friday.
“It was just like one of those days where everything worked out,” Madsen said. “I played well, Ellie played well and the other girls played even. That’s the key to having a good score.”
The Pack’s 275 combined score was the best single round score in its history, with Madsen and Hildreth going off, while freshman Lindsay McGrath and senior Vania Simont also posted competitive scores with a pair of even-par rounds.
Although the Pack could not keep up the pace, after 54 holes, the top four golfers remained on point as each finished in the top 20. Lindsay McGrath moved into a tie for eighth, finishing at 3-over-par. Simont closed things at 5-over par, good for a tie at 14th. Hildreth finished at 6-over to tie for 17th.
Also competing but not seeing any of their scores count were junior Lea Ludwig and freshman Betsy Sullivan, who played as individuals.
The pair of star freshman, Hildreth and McGrath, both posted 11 birdies, enough to tie with the individual winner for most in the tournament.
“[With] these young guns coming in, [and] Marie, our birdie production is some of the best in the country,” Sligh said. “And so when we learn how to manage bogey and manage emotion, we’ll make enough birdies to beat a lot of people.”
The Pack will get on the road again at the end of the week and head to Wilmington, North Carolina for the Landfall Tradition Oct. 24-26.
“We got one with basically the same feel next week. Seven teams from [Ruth’s Chris] will be at the Landfall next week, so it’s a very similar field,” Sligh said. “We’re going to see the same people on a relatively similar golf course.”
