Other Sports
Central Arkansas women climb to third at Diamante Invitational
The Bears rallied from fourth in the final round to finish third in Hot Springs Village and close the fall.
Alethea Paige Gaccion finished the Diamante Invitational at 3-under. Her team finished at 3-under too.
For Gaccion, that was good for seventh place out of 114 golfers. For Central Arkansas women’s golf, it meant third place in a 20-team field at Diamante Country Club in Hot Springs Village, Ark.
This was the last event of the fall for UCA. The tournament ran Oct. 18-20 with one 18-hole round each day, Sunday through Tuesday.
The Bears started fast. They were in second place after the first round, and five of their golfers shot even par or better that day. Four of those were counting scores. The fifth was playing as an independent.
Round 2 didn’t go as well, and they slipped to fourth.
On Tuesday they made up one spot and finished third at 3-under.
Birdies carried the Bears
UCA made 50 birdies over three rounds. Only one other team matched that, so the Bears tied for the most in the field.
They also had an eagle.
A lot of that came on the par 5s. The Bears averaged 4.68 on those holes, which tied for first.
They were pretty good on the par 4s, too, averaging 4.03 to tie for third.
The par 3s were another matter. UCA averaged 3.37 on the short holes and ranked 15th there. If the coaches are looking for something to work on this winter, that’s probably near the top of the list.
The Bears ended up with 170 pars, eighth in the event. When a team is making that many birdies, it’s usually trading away some pars to do it.
Long break before February
UCA is done until after winter break.
The Bears’ next tournament is the UCF Challenge, Feb. 1-3 at Eagle Creek Golf Club in Orlando, Fla.
That’s a little more than three months off. Coming out of a third-place week, it’s a decent spot to start from, and it’s plenty of time to sort out those par 3s.
