By Michael Haag | Sports Editor
In its opening event of the season, Baylor women’s golf notched a fifth-place finish on Monday at the Schooner Fall Classic in Norman, Okla. Freshman Silje Ohma made history for the Bears, as she tied a school record with a 65 in the final round.
Ohma joined nine other golfers in program history to attain the feat, and she wound up tied for tenth place individually. Of those nine golfers, Ohma is the only one to have done it in her first career tournament.
“She’s pretty much the whole package,” head coach Jay Goble said. “Not only can she hit the ball a long way, but this week she hit some great wedge shots and putted the ball well. I was very impressed with her game in a competitive environment, and the most exciting part is that she will just continue to improve.”
Ohma’s overall score of 207 ties the seventh-lowest individual tournament score in program history.
In her first five holes of the day, Ohma snagged two birdies and an eagle to put her 3-under par. She had two more birdies to close the front-nine and broke even on the back-nine, reaching 5-under for the round.
Sophomore Sera Hasegawa found herself tied for 15th after a 1-under 209 tally. In the final round, Hasegawa shot 2-over 72. She hovered around par most of the way, but slipped up with bogey’s at Nos. 11, 13 and 18.
Junior Rosie Belsham ended her day tied for 32nd thanks to a 3-over 73 in Monday’s round. She started with five-straight pars before a bogey at No. 6. She finished the front-nine even after a birdie at No. 9, but fell victim to three bogeys on the back-nine to cap off her 73.
It was the best round of sophomore BaiMai Seema’s career thanks to a 1-under 69 on Monday, pitting her tied for 42nd. Seema only recorded two bogeys on the last day, both coming within the first four holes. The knocked in three birdies the rest of the way.
Another Bear in red figures was junior Britta Snyder, as she mirrored Seema with a 1-under 69, also tying her in 42nd place. It was an up-and-down showing from Snyder, but she shot an even-par 34 on the closing nine.
Snyder tallied 40 pars on the event, tied for most across the field.
Finishing tied for 68th was senior Anika Veintemilla, who finished her day with seven pars and two bogeys on the front side for a 2-over 72.
Florida State University won the team title, shooting 12-under 828. TCU’s Caitlyn Macnab snagged the individual title by one shot over Iowa State’s Karisa Chul-Ak-Sorn.
The Bears’ overall score of 836 is the second-lowest team tournament score in program history. Goble said the team looked spotty but that it was a good opening tournament.
“We showed some really good things, even if we didn’t have our best stuff in our first tournament of the year,” Goble said. “Most of these girls have not played a competitive tournament in about 50-60 days, which is a long time in golf. We were able to knock off some rust in our short game and decision making, which gives us some things to work on as we prepare to go to Stanford next month.”
Baylor gets over a month off until it plays at the Stanford Intercollegiate in Stanford, Calif., from Oct. 21- 23.
