US COLLEGE NEWS

Hannah tops NINE English players

at the same US college tournament

It might well have been a record - NINE English students at American colleges played in this week's Johnie Imes Invitational tournament over three rounds at The Club at Old Hawthorne, Columbia in Missouri.

Hannah Lovelock from Surrey, pictured right, a sophomore student at Missouri University, was the best of the bunch. She finished joint ninth on 227 with rounds of 79, 73 and 75 for 227 over a par-72, 6204yd course.

Hannah looked like to get seventh place until she had a double bogey 6 at the first hole, the last hole she played! Considering she had three double bogey 7s in the space of five holes in her first round, Hannah did very well indeed to get a top-10 finish behind the winner from Tulsa, Kristina Merkle with scores of 69, 74 and 79 for 222.

Stacey Rodger from Sussex, a senior student at Missouri State, finished joint 12th with scores of 75, 81 and 71 for 228, She was tied 36th at the start of the last round but six birdies in her sub-par round boosted her up the leaderboard. Stacey had a quadruple bogey 8 in her second round or she might have finished in the top 10.

Nicola Race (Missouri) from Essex has still to find the form that saw her transferred from Redlands Community College where she was having great success at a lower level. Nicola finished tied 43rd on 236 with scores of 82, 77 and 77.

Ami Storey from Ponteland Golf Club, Blythe in the North-east of England and a sophomore student at Kansas State, shared 53rd place on 238 with scores of 83, 74 and 81.

Lauren Blease from Surrey, a sophomore student at Florida International, shared 59th place with scores of 78, 82 and 80 for 240.

Freshman team-mate Nikki Dunn from Harrogate finished joint 63rd on 241 with scores of 79, 79 and 83. Also on the 241 mark was Kirsty Rands, a sophomore at Mississippi University, from Surrey. She had rounds of 78, 83 and 80.

Middle Tennessee State team-mates Steph Gough and Clara Leathers, both from Aylesbury, finished joint 73rd and 87th respectively in a field of 99 players. Steph scored 84, 81 and 82 for 247 while Clara had rounds of 84, 83 and 85 for 252.