May 20, 2005

Sunriver, Ore. – South Carolina women’s golfer Jenna Pearson shot a two-over-par 73 in Friday’s final round of the 2005 NCAA Women’s Golf Championships, played at the Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore., to bring her final tournament score to 79-79-72-73=303. She finished in a tie for 60th overall.

Starting her day from the 10th hole, Pearson got off on the right foot Friday, stringing seven consecutive pars together before shooting a birdie four on the course’s par-five 17th hole. A pair of pars on the 18th and the first followed, and Pearson sat at one-under through her first 10 holes. She bogeyed the par-five second hole before rattling off three consecutive pars. A birdie on the par-four sixth brought Pearson to one-under through 15 holes. She closed her day, however, with three consecutive bogeys to finish at two over.

Pearson qualified for the NCAA Championships by finishing with one of the two lowest scores among players representing schools that did not qualify as a team at the NCAA East Regional earlier this month. She played her best golf of the year at the Sunriver Resort during the fall, carding a three-round score of 69-74-74=217 to finish in a tie for 14th at the NCAA Fall Preview. Her first-round 69 was the lowest round for any Carolina player this year.

South Carolina has been represented at the NCAA Championships in each of the last seven years. The Gamecocks qualified for NCAAs as a team in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003 and were represented by individual qualifiers in 2000 (Rebecca Lee), 2004 (Adrienne Gautreaux) and 2005 (Jenna Pearson). During coach Kristi Coggins’ 11-year tenure at Carolina, the Gamecocks have qualified for NCAA Regionals 10 times and the NCAA Championships six times, with their best finish coming in 1995, when the team finished ninth.

Friday final round put a cap on the 2005 women’s golf season.