Cloots' 67 Powers Carolina To Best Finish Of The Year

Sunday, March 6

Hilton Head, S.C.

All Day

North Carolina

Darius Rucker Invitational

Women's Golf Concludes Fall Tournaments At Landfall

March 6, 2016 | Women's Golf

By: UNC Athletic Communications

HILTON HEAD, S.C. – The University of North Carolina women's golf team finished the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in fifth place at 29-over-par thanks in part to a final round 67 from junior Leslie Cloots. The fifth place finish is the best finish of the year for the team and it came against one of the toughest fields the team has faced all year.

“Overall it was a great tournament for us,” head coach Jan Mann said. “We saw some improvement from all of our players. I think it will give the team some more confidence and momentum going into the rest of the spring.”

Cloots' 67 is the lowest stroke count round of her collegiate career and matches her lowest to-par score of her career at 4-under. Cloots shot a 4-under-par 68 in the final day of the Ruth's Chris Tar Heel Invitational.

Cloots' 4-under-par round was unblemished with four birdies and no bogeys. She was the best player on the course today with no other competitor scoring better than 1-under-par in the final round. She ended the tournament tied for ninth at 5-over-par. Freshman Kelly Whaley posted a 4-over-par final round to finish the tournament at 7-over and tied for 17th. Lexi Harkins was 5-over-par on the day and finished 10-over for the tournament. She tied for 35th. Elizabeth Mallett and Bryana Nguyen went 7-over and 8-over, respectively, in the final round. Mallett finished the tournament at 12-over-par and teid for 39th while Nguyen finished tied for 45th at 13-over-par.

Rachel Jones, competing as an individual, shot a 5-over-par 76 in the final round, her best round of the tournament, and finished tied for 84th.

Alabama closed the tournament 16-over-par 868. Virginia took second at 23-over-par 875 while Duke took third at 26-over-par. In fourth was Oklahoma State at 27-over-par while North Carolina took fifth at 29-over-par. The Tar Heels finished ahead of three teams ranked in the top-5 by Golfstat.com.

Cheyenne Knight of Alabama took the individual competition at even par. Alexandra Farnsworth of Vanderbilt, Maddie McCrary of Oklahoma State, Sandy Choi of Duke and Lauren Coughlin of Virginia all shared second place at 1-over-par. At 3-over-par was Harang Lee of Georgia while Kately Dambaugh of South Carolina and Elizabeth Szokol of Virginia tied for seventh. Four individuals tied for ninth at 5-over-par, including Leslie Cloots.

North Carolina will be looking to take the momentum from this tournament into their next tournament, which is the LSU Tiger Golf Classic on March 20-22.