AUSTIN, Texas ā
Hannah Screen and
Libby Winans led the Oklahoma women's golf team on day one at the 47
th Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational in Austin, Texas.
The Sooners (586, +10) battled back after a tough morning where they carded a 299 (+11), to move from seventh to fifth place in the afternoon when head coach
Veronique Drouin-Luttrell's squad fired a 1-under, 287. Oklahoma sits just three strokes off of fourth-place TCU, and seven off third-place Iowa State.
"In the morning, it just seemed like we were trying to force some shots and putts," Drouin-Luttrell said. "But I saw a lot of great stuff out there this afternoon. Our energy was just different. This is a golf course where placing your shots in the right spot is key, and we've got to execute that tomorrow."
Screen will enter Sunday's final round in a tie for second, just one shot off the lead after carding back-to-back rounds of 3-under 69, at the par-72, 6,331-yard UT Golf Club on Saturday. The junior is coming off her Sooner debut where she finished tied for sixth at the Schooner Fall Classic in late September.
"I thought Hannah played solid all day," Drouin-Luttrell said. "She is such a talented golfer and ball-striker, and because of that, she puts herself into good spots, and she's done that again this weekend."
Winans put together an efficient afternoon round, firing a team-low 68 (-4) after tallying a 76 (+4) in the morning. The Oklahoma junior flew up 18 spots on the individual leaderboard after firing five birdies and just a single bogey on her second 18 holes to get back to even-par. Saturday afternoon's score of 68 marked Winans' 20
th career round below par.
"Libby was really good this afternoon, too," the 12
th-year head coach said. "To be able to bounce back to put together a 68 to get back to even-par shows the type of player that she is."
Heading into Sunday's final round,
Hannah Lee and
Maria Fernanda Martinez fired identical rounds of 77 (+5) and 76 (+4) to share 36th.Ā
Kaitlin Milligan rounded out the Oklahoma lineup and sits in a tie for 39
th after shooting an 81 (+9) and 74 (+2).
The Sooners will look to grab their second top-five finish of the young season tomorrow, and a third top-five finish at the Longhorn in three tries under Drouin-Luttrell.
Oklahoma is set to tee off on Sunday at 8:45 a.m. CT with TCU and North Texas on holes six thru 10.