Sadie Englemann of Stanford and Kale Fontenot of Georgia Tech claimed the stroke-play titles in the ninth East Lake Cup in breezy conditions at the Atlanta Athletic Club, heading into match play the next two days that will determine the team champions.
The teams were unable to play at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, the usual site of the tournament and also the course where the annual Tour Championship on the PGA Tour is held, because it is being renovated.
Englemann, a senior from Austin, Texas, won the Women’s individual title by shooting three-under-par 68 to defeat Cardinal teammate Megha Ganne, a sophomore from Holmdel, N.J., Cindy Kou of USC, Jennie Park of Texas A&M and Macy Pate of Wake Forest by one stroke.
“We played a practice round yesterday and I really enjoyed the course,” said Englemann, who claimed her second college victory after tying for first in the 2021 Stanford Dual. “So I woke up this morning feeling really good and was able to go out and play a very good round. I’m from the South, so I’m really comfortable playing in a little wind and on these Bermuda greens.
“We lost our star player, Rose Zhang to the pros last year, but we still have a number of very good players. After losing in the NCAA finals last year, we believe that we can go back and claim the national title that we won in 2022 again.”
Catherine Park of USC totaled 72 to tie for sixth with Paula Martin Sampedro of Stanford and Rachael Kuehn of Wake Forest, while Carolina Lopez-Chacarra of Wake Forest was ninth at 73, followed by Bailey Shoemaker of USC at 74.
Fontenot, a freshman from Lafayette, La., earned his first college victory with a score of 68, while twin brothers David Ford and Michael Ford of North Carolina tied for second at 69, while Gray Albright and Luke Clanton, both of Florida State, tied for fourth at 70.
Luke Poulter of Florida, the son of PGA Tour star Ian Poulter, carded a score of 71 to tie for sixth with Frederik Kjettrup of Florida State, while Christo Lamprect of Georgia Tech totaled 72 to tie for eighth with Matthew Kress of Florida and Brett Roberts of Florida State.
Stanford’s women finished with a score of even par 288, followed by Wake Forest at 291, USC at 292 and Texas A&M at 301. In the semifinals of match play on Tuesday, Stanford will meet Texas A&M and USC will play Wake Forest, with the winners meeting on Wednesday for the title won by Auburn last year.
Florida State finished first in the men’s standings on Monday with a score of five-under-par 283, followed by North Carolina at 285, Georgia Tech at 290 and Florida at 292. In the match-play semifinals on Tuesday, Florida State will take on Florida and North Carolina will face Georgia Tech. The winners will play on Wednesday for the title won by Vanderbilt in 2022.
For complete results and match-play pairings, visit: https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=player&tid=28488 and https://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=28491
