Three Miami Golfers Place in Top-30 to Open Season at Cougar Classic
Hanahan, S.C. – Sara Byrne, Anna Backman, and Franziska Sliper all earned top-30 finishes to pace the University of Miami golf team in its season opening tournament, the Cougar Classic, on Monday and Tuesday.
The Hurricanes finished ninth as a team, shooting a three-round total of 872 (+8) at the par-72 6,301-yard Yeamans Hall Club.
Arkansas claimed the team title with a score of 841 (23-under), while Baylor (842; 22-under) finished second and Florida (851; 13-under) ended in third.
“The girls were disappointed in their performance, they felt like they could’ve played much better. Although it was the first event in a while for them, we will have to just consider it a good warm-up,” head coach Patti Rizzo said. “We are definitely looking forward to competing and having more success at the next tournament. It wasn’t a bad performance, but it definitely was not a great one.”
Byrne opened the tournament by firing four birdies in Round One to finish 2-under after 18-holes. She capped off the first tournament of the season with back-to-back rounds of 73 (1-over), ultimately finishing even-par (216) to tie for 24th.
Following a strong second and third rounds of play, Sliper posted two straight rounds under par with a 71 (1-under) and 70 (2-under) to shoot up 16 spots on the individual leaderboard. She finished with a 54-hole total of 1-over (217), tying for 29th.
Backman also recorded a 29th-place finish with a one-over par performance. The fourth-year junior shot a second-round score of 68 (4-under) on Monday and a final 18-hole total of 1-over (73) on Tuesday.
Kristyna Frydlova finished tied for 60th with a three-round score of 223 (7-over) and Daniella Barrett shot a 228 (12-over) to finish tied 83rd.
