The Tulane women’s golf team has so far swung and missed its mark this semester. With middle-of-the-road team performances at both the Trinity Forest Invitational and the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate, where the Green Wave finished eighth ninth, respectively, the team is off to a mediocre start. 

Head coach Stew Burke was not pleased following the final round at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate.

“We dropped a lot of shots coming in and our finish reflected that,” Burke said. “We’ve got a break before our next event to work on cleaning up the basic errors to be ready to play in Lexington.”

With hopes of redeeming itself, the team traveled to Lexington, Kenntucky, on Friday, Sept. 27, for the first round of the Bettie Lou Evans Invitational. 

In the first round, freshmen Carlota Palacios led the Green Wave with a three-under 69. Following the second round of action on Saturday, Palacios took the lead in the tournament. She went on to finish the second round with a one-under 71, bringing her to four-under-par through two rounds.

Freshman Sandra Vazquez also contributed Saturday with a solid second round performance, logging an  even-par 72. Burke praised these athletes’ performances in a press release.

“I was pleased to see [Vasquez] fight back from a poor start to shoot even and [Palacios] backed up yesterday’s round with another red number,” said Burke. “There were lots of other positives for the group and I’m looking forward to getting back out tomorrow and finishing strong.” 

Palacios went on to a second-place finish, with the Green Wave finishing sixth overall and posting a combined team score of 22-over 886.

Looking ahead, the Green Wave women’s golfers will head to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational on Friday, Oct. 11. Further down the road, the team will be at Paradise Island in The Bahamas from Oct. 28-30 for the Sands Bahamas Invitational.