The No. 19 Texas A&M women’s golf team headed to Sunset, South Carolina to complete its regular season in the Clemson Invitational at the par 72, 6,441-yard course, The Reserve at Lake Keowee on March 22-24.
The team landed as a runner-up for the competition.
Head coach Gerrod Chadwell took the same five players to South Carolina as he did for the team’s previous tourney at the Mountain View Collegiate in Arizona. The players were freshman Cayetana Fernández García-Poggio, graduate Jennie Park, senior Zoe Slaughter, junior Adela Cernousek and graduate Blanca Fernández García-Poggio.
Slaughter led her team in Round 1 with a shared fourth placement at 3-under 69. The senior shot a total of six birdies on her first day.
“It was great to see Zoe put together a great day,” Chadwell said. “She has been working on her game and she found something that brought some firepower to the course.”
Cernousek, who has four top-10 performances under her belt, finished Day 1 tied for 14th place going 1-under 71.
Blanca shared 20th with five birdies and an even par while her sister, Cayetana, the No. 6 amateur in the world, shot 1-over 73 with three birdies and shared 31st.
Park rounded out at 3-over 75 and a tie for 50th.
At the end of Round 1, the Aggies finished 3-under 285 tied for second with their host Clemson.
“We got off to a slow start but had a really good middle to end of the round,” Chadwell said.
Going into Round 2, Cernousek took the spot from Slaughter as team leader, moving up several spots to land in third going 5-under 67. She was 6-under 138 rounding out Day 2 and just five strokes short from taking first place.
Cayetana shot three birdies going 3-under 69 and tied for 15th. Blanca went even back-to-back and shared 27th.
Park tied for 57th going 2-over 74 and Slaughter tied for 37th after shooting 5-over 77.
A&M totaled a 6-under 282 in Round 2 and was knocked down a rank to third.
“We are right in there heading into tomorrow,” Chadwell said after Day 2. “Adela [Cernousek] got off to a blazing start. It was nice to see Adela and Cata [Fernández García-Poggio] have great days. We are so close to having a big one and we will have an opportunity tomorrow.”
Cernousek finished the Clemson Invitational taking the second place spot with a 2-under 70 for Round 3 and 8-under 208 overall, adding to her 70.21 stroke average.
The Maroon and White finished in second place for the second tournament in a row, shooting 6-under 858 through 54 holes.
Blanca and Cayetana tied for 16th and 19th, respectively. Blanca shot even par all three days while Cayetana went 3-over 75 for Day 3 and 1-over 217 overall.
Park shared 51st at 2-over 74 for Round 3 and 7-over 223 overall. Slaughter shared 58th, going 7-over 79 for Round 3 and 9-over 225 overall.
“We battled all the way through and finished strong,” Chadwell said. “We took another step forward this week. We didn’t have our best but fought until the end. We are heading in the right direction at the right time of the year. Fortunately, [we] have some time to rest before SECs.”
The Aggies are hoping to defend their title at the 2024 SEC Championships in Belleair, Florida at the Pelican Golf Club from April 12-16.
