Eat-A-Peach Belongs to Mercer!

J. Andrew Lockwood
BearZone Columnist
September 30, 2010

A pair of firsts came along the women’s golf teams’ way recently as they captured their first tournament title of the year and their first outright individual title in several years. Winning the tournament on a playoff hole, Mercer freshman Lacey Fears showed her stuff with a par of low scores (71-72) in the first two rounds before defeating runner-up Greta Lange of Shorter College (74-69). Mercer (594) would easily take the team victory over the other ten teams in the field, besting runner-up Shorter (618) by 24 strokes. Eight other teams from Georgia were represented as well as Flagler College from Florida.

“The Eat-A-Peach was a big win for us and got us going in the right direction,” said head coach Gary Guyer. “The teams we beat were playing at the level we were playing at when I first arrived here [three years ago]. We made huge strides in shooting a 294 and 300 and anytime you shoot below 300, that’s a great accomplishment,” he added.

While Fears took home the tournament title, her teammates were on her heels, capped by fellow freshman Mary Alice Murphy’s 3rd place finish (72-73). Alicia Poole would follow in 5th (74-78) while Kayli Wicker (8th, 79-75), Aurelie Wiriath (T-10th, 77-79), Kimberly Graff (T-10th, 79-77), Keri Lynn Carson (T-14th, 79-79), Kaitlin Marrin (T-23rd, 75-87), and Jessica Arthur (T-37th, 83-88) would round out both Mercer lineups in the tournament. Notably, former Mercer player Leslie Choucard would place 4th in the final tournament standings for Flagler, shooting a 72-77 and standing in contention during the two-day classic.

“I’m very happy with our freshman girls,” Guyer added. “They’ve come a long way for us and winning a tournament, especially in a sudden-death type manner, was exciting. I’m team is coming together and we’re looking forward to the LPGA Invitational.”

The final playoff hole was quite the duel between Fears and Lange. Fears opened up with a drive 20 yards past Lange and played with smart shots on her way to two-putting for the win. Lange would triple-bogey and settle for second.

Mercer’s next test comes at the LPGA Invitational at the Legends Course in Daytona, Florida. The national tournament hosted by Xavier University will pit Mercer against some of the top teams in the country and will provide the hardest test to date for the Bears. Afterwards, only one tournament remains on the fall schedule as they travel to Greenville for the Lady Paladin Invitational.