A sluggish beginning to the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge put the ASU women’s golf team in a deep hole.
Four of the five ASU golfers had their worst round of the invitational. The team exited 18-over par on day one, which tied them for eighth place.
The Sun Devils spent the second and third days of the invitational climbing up the leaderboards with rounds of 11-over and 10-over par.
ASU finished in fourth place with an 891 aggregate total score, but could have catapulted one spot higher.
ASU battled neck and neck with Pepperdine for third place for almost the entire third round, but a late falter from sophomore Justine Lee separated the two schools.
Lee bogeyed three of her last eight holes and double-bogeyed another, placing ASU four strokes behind Pepperdine.
ASU entered with a goal to finish in the top three, as they were the No. 3 team entering the invitational.
The Sun Devils didn’t reach that goal, but a strong final day made the scores close.
A tournament-best 10-over par on the final day was not enough to vault ASU into the top three after their slow start.
Senior Giulia Molinaro led all Sun Devils’ golfers for the second tournament in a row. Molinaro is the lone veteran on a young ASU squad and finished in the top 10 overall for the second consecutive time.
After hitting a season-worst six-over par during round one, Molinaro found her stroke again and shot an even par on the final two days.
Despite her struggles on the last eight holes, Lee played a strong tournament. For much of the third day, her score was under par, and she finished four strokes better than her previous invitational.
Lee finished by tying for 16th place with a nine-over total.
Freshman Noemi Jimenez finished 12-over par for the tournament, sophomore Laura Blanco hit 13-over par, and sophomore Daniela Ordonez shot 17-over par.
Ordonez played as the No. 2 ASU golfer, but she struggled in the role and finished below the other five Sun Devils.
The sixth ASU golfer was freshman Emilie Alonso, who was brought along as an individual and played better than some of her teammates.
However, Alonso triple-bogeyed on holes 17 and 18 in the final round, making her combined 14-over par look worse than the score indicated.
Reach the reporter at jmjanss1@asu.edu
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