Coming off back-to-back top-three finishes in its previous two tournaments, No. 18 Texas A&M women’s golf prepared for a trip to Florida as they traveled to Melbourne for the Moon Golf Invitational to play in a pool of 17 teams. After a promising start in the opening days, a disappointing Round 3 reduced A&M to a final position of sixth place at 11-over 875.
The Aggies began swinging with determination. With sophomore Cayetana Fernández García-Poggio and junior Mia Nixon shooting an even 70, A&M was able to finish Round 1 shooting an impressive 4-over 292 and tied for third-place with Ole Miss.
“We started on the back nine and got through the toughest stretch early which gave us some good momentum,” coach Gerrod Chadwell said. “We took advantage of the down-wind par-5 on 18 that helped us going into the turn. The course played hard, so I was proud of our intentionality to stay focused and aggressive. Cata and Mia were really good. I walked all 18 holes with Mia and she looks very solid.”
The Maroon and White stayed consistent despite the wind in Round 2, shooting an even 288 with Fernández García-Poggio and senior Lauren Nguyen both shooting 2-under 70. Fernández García-Poggio completed this round tied for third on the solo leaderboard as A&M climbed up to second-place.
“We adjusted very well to the changes in the conditions that made this play like an entirely new golf course,” Chadwell said. “It’s easy to see from the scores that the golf course is still winning, but we stayed in control of our round for the most part of today. Everything our young ladies have been doing at home has put us in position to compete for a title tomorrow.”
On the final day, the Aggies could not keep up its consistency. After sitting in second place after two rounds, a 7-over 295 Round 3 performance moved them outside of the top-five and into sixth place to end the tournament.
“We played 36 great holes, but the final 18 will overshadow that,” Chadwell said. “We have to learn from this experience and move forward. There was a lot of good this week that showed us what we can do and what we should do, and the bad will help us get better. I am glad we get to go back on the course next week in Humble to put what we learned today onto the course.”
No. 7 Florida State reigned supreme, capturing the title with a 2-under 862 while No. 12 Wake Forest finished right behind them, finishing with a 1-over 865 as the runner-up.
While Fernández García-Poggio’s first two rounds went smoothly, she failed to capitalize on Round 3, shooting 7-over 79 to get to 5-over 221 for the tournament. While she finished tied for third at the end of Round 2, she dropped 24 spots and finished tied for 27th.
In her final round, freshman Vanessa Borovilos had a strong performance, shooting 3-under 69 to get to an even 216 for the tournament. The newcomer had zero bougies in the third round and was tied for tenth in the individual rankings.
The Aggies will be back in action on Monday, Feb. 24 when they travel to Humble to play in the Chevron Collegiate.
