CORVALLIS, Ore. - Scores dipped Friday at the NCAA Division I Women's West Regional as players adjusted to warmer temperatures and the punishing rough at Trysting Tree Golf Club.
Nine players slipped in under par during the second round, compared to just four on Thursday. Arizona State freshman Jimin Kang carded a 66 for the day's low round.
"I made a lot of birdies and one eagle today," Kang said of her collegiate low round. "I almost made another putt for eagle but I just missed it."
Kang's 6-under score moved Arizona State into a tie for third place with Michigan State, 23 strokes behind Arizona. Stanford sits in second, 15 shots behind the Wildcats.
Ohio State and UCLA are tied for fifth in the team standings, while Southern California shot a 298 to move into seventh and Tennessee is eighth. Eight teams will advance to the NCAA Division I Women's Championship, to be played May 22-25 near Orlando, Fla.
"It seemed like we struggled today but looking at our scores I'm really happy," said Arizona coach Greg Allen.
Arizona freshman Natalie Gulbis carded her second-straight 68 for an individual total of 136.
"Yesterday I hit all the fairways and greens. Today I really scrambled for the same score," Gulbis said. "At the beginning of the day I missed a couple 2- or 3-footers, but toward the end I was making them. I was missing shots and getting up-and-down anyway."
The rough spelled trouble again for many golfers, but those in low numbers managed to avoid it.
"I was in the rough once today," said Stanford sophomore Kim Rowton, who shot a 2-under 70. "Yesterday I was in the rough two or three times. Even just not getting in two more times saved four strokes."
And some players who found the rough off the tee elected to just punch out, or decided not to hit their balls from the covered lies.
"Kim, I'm taking an unplayable," Gulbis called to playing partner Rowton after driving left into the knee-high grass on the par-5 fifth. Even with the penalty stroke, Gulbis managed a par on the hole.
"You have to be patient," said Tennessee's Young-A Yang. "The rough is so hard that after you hit it off the tee, you think, 'Thank god I didn't go in.'"
Yang's 68 gave her the second lowest score of the day with Arizona's Gulbis and bumped her team, Tennessee, into the eighth spot going into the final round.
UCLA's Laura Moffat also carded a 68. Ohio State junior Natalie Aber shot a 69, along with Washington's Kelli Kamimura.
In addition to Rowton's 70 for Stanford, Michigan State's Emily Bastel and Arizona's Lorena Ochoa also shot 1-under 71s.
Teams near the cutoff headed out to the range to get in just a little more practice after their rounds, hoping it would make the difference in the final round.
"We've just gotta play better," said Mary Lou Mulflur, coach of the ninth-placed Washington Huskies. "We haven't had a whole team effort, just two or three people."
