Oct. 10, 2004

Chapel Hill, N.C. – The South Carolina women’s golf team turned in its best effort of the weekend Sunday, shooting a 305 in the final round of the Franklin Street Partners Invitational at the University of North Carolina Finley Golf Course to finish seventh in the final team standings.

Sophomore Jenna Pearson led the way for the Gamecocks with a two-over-par 74, which marked the lowest score of any USC player all weekend and moved her up to a tie for 28th on the final individual leaderboard. Pearson started her day on the course’s 11th hole, and battled early inconsistency, going bogey, par, birdie, par, bogey, par, bogey on her first seven holes. She settled down to shoot par on the 18th and first holes, then picked up a birdie on the par-four second hole to get to one-over on the day. After picking up another par on the third hole, Pearson bogeyed number four. She rattled off six consecutive pars to finish her day at two-over.

Junior Erica Battle capped a solid weekend with a four-over-par 76 in Sunday’s final round. The Irmo native shot a 76 in the first round, a 77 in the second round and a 76 in the final round to finish tied for 20th on the individual leaderboard. Starting her day on the 13th hole, Battle registered four consecutive pars to start, then birdied the par-five 17th hole for the second time during the weekend to move to one-under through her first five holes. She gave the stroke back with a bogey on 18, but rebounded to go par, birdie, par, birdie on her next four holes to move to two-under through 10 holes. A pair of double-bogeys on number five and number six moved her to two-over, where she stayed until suffering bogeys on number 10 and number 12 to finish her day at four-over.

Starting from the 12th hole, freshman Blythe Worley turned in a respectable five-over-par 77 Sunday. Worley, who carded a two-over 74 Saturday and finished the event in a tie for 25th on the individual leaderboard, was solid through her first 12 holes, registering 10 pars and only two bogeys. However, she suffered through a double-bogey on the par-five sixth hole, then bogeyed number nine to bring her score to five-over, where she finished after closing her day out with back-to-back pars on 10 and 11.

Freshman Whitney Simons and junior Laura McCaslin both posted their best scores of the weekend, with Simons carding a six-over-par 78 and McCaslin finishing with a nine-over-par 81.