The No. 18 Tennessee women’s golf team finished the first round of the Southeastern Conference Championship on Apr. 17 tied for tenth place at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.
The opening day performance puts Tennessee four strokes behind Mississippi State and Arkansas, who are tied for seventh. The Lady Vols need to be among the top eight teams after Sunday’s third round to advance to match play.
Freshman Madison Messimer led Tennessee with a score of 2-under-par 68 in her debut at the SEC Championship. Messimer was three under par on the front nine and added another birdie on hole No. 14 before finishing as the only Lady Vol under par for the day. She is currently tied for seventh individually, two strokes off the lead among an eighty-player field.
Kaopan Thapasit, also a freshman, recorded an even-par 70 after going bogey-free through fifteen holes and making three birdies before encountering trouble late in her round. Thapasit is tied for twenty-first place entering Saturday’s second round.
Senior Manassanan Chotikabhukkana opened her fourth SEC Championship appearance with a score of two-over-par 72, highlighted by a bogey-free back nine that included birdies on holes ten and seventeen. She is currently tied for thirty-eighth place.
Sophomores Sophie Christopher and Kyra Van Kan each shot four-over-par rounds of seventy-four to complete Tennessee’s scoring lineup; both are tied for fifty-seventh place after eighteen holes.
The championship continues Saturday with another round of stroke play as teams vie to qualify for match play beginning Sunday.
