May 20, 2016 NCAA Championship - Day One Results and Statistics 
THE RUNDOWN
EUGENE, Ore. -- Baylor's Laura Lonardi is tied for 19th place after shooting 1-under-par 71 in Friday's first round at the NCAA Women's Golf Championship. The senior from Verona, Italy, is competing as an individual in the tournament, which is being played at Eugene Country Club in Eugene, Ore.
Lonardi began her round on the 10th tee on Friday afternoon. She made par on the 10th hole, then bogeyed No. 11 before stringing together four straight pars. A birdie on the 152-yard, par-3 16th hole got her back to even-par, but she bogeyed No. 18 to take the turn at 1-over-par.
Lonardi finished strong, making seven pars and two birdies over her final nine holes. She recorded a birdie on the 474-yard, par-5 seventh hole, and closed her round with another birdie on the 398-yard, par-4 ninth hole.
Saturday's second round begins at 9:30 a.m. CT, and Lonardi will tee off from the first hole at 10:25 a.m. Following Sunday's third round, the 24 teams and 12 individuals will be narrowed down to the top 15 teams and the top nine individuals whose teams weren't in the top 15. Those 84 players will play a final round of stroke play on Monday to determine the NCAA Championship medalist. Lonardi is currently tied for eighth among players whose teams aren't in the top 15 following the first round.
Lonardi is currently fifth among the 12 players competing only as individuals. She trails Purdue's August Kim (-4), who is tied for the tournament lead, along with Wake Forest's Jennifer Kupcho (-3), California's Marianne Li (-2) and Louisville's Olivia Cason (-2).
HIGHLIGHTS
- Lonardi is tied for 18th in the 132-player field in par-5 scoring average at 1-under 4.75.
- Lonardi is tied for 25th in par-4 scoring average at even-par 4.00.
- Lonardi is tied for 34th in par-3 scoring average at ever-par 3.00.
- Lonardi is tied for 16th in the field with 13 pars recorded.
- Lonardi was one of only 10 players in the field to make birdie on No. 9, a 398-yard, par-4 hole.
- Lonardi was one of 23 players to make birdie on the par-3, 152-yard 16th hole.
- Lonardi was one of 49 players to birdie the 474-yard, par-5 seventh hole.
STAT OF THE DAY
2-under -- Laura Lonardi shot 2-under over her last nine holes, recording seven pars and two birdies to rebound from taking the turn at 1-over to finish the day at 1-under-par 71.
WHAT'S NEXT
Saturday's second round begins at 9:30 a.m. CT. Lonardi is scheduled to tee off on the first hole at 10:25 a.m. in a pairing with Arizona State's Linnea Strom and Michigan State's Sarah Burnham. Live scoring is available at www.golfstat.com. Follow @BaylorWGolf on Twitter for updates throughout the year.
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation EUGENE, Ore. - Overcoming an early three-putt bogey, Baylor senior
Laura Lonardi closed with birdies on two of the last three holes Friday and opened the NCAA Championship with a 1-under-par 71 that left her just three shots off the lead.
"The leaderboard is so close," Lonardi said. "So I'm happy that on a day when I wasn't at my best I was able to stick around. I have three more days to go out there and do my best and count them up at the end. The most important thing is I didn't let myself get too far away. So, let's see what happens the next three days."
One of 28 players who shot below par in the first round, Lonardi is chasing Arizona's Haley Moore and Purdue's August Kim, who sit atop a crowded leaderboard at 4-under 68. She is 16th in the 132-player field with 13 pars and tied for 18th in par-5 scoring at 1-under.
Starting on the 10th, Lonardi followed up a routine par with a three-putt bogey at No. 11 and then reeled off four straight pars before carding a birdie at the par-3, 152-yard 16th. At No. 18, she rolled in a 15-foot putt for bogey to help avoid a big number and make the turn at 1-over.
"Today was a different round than most of my rounds, because I hit the ball really bad off the tee, which is something I usually don't do," she said. "I missed a fairly short putt on 11, but I putted really well the whole day, so I didn't let that affect me at all."
Keeping it together on the second nine, Lonardi made six straight pars before a birdie on the par-5, 474-yard seventh and then rolled in a 12-footer for birdie on No. 9 to get below par for the first time.
"Those are the putts that change your round," she said, "because you go from being 1-over to 1-under. That's so much different."
Paired with Arizona State's Linnea Strom and Michigan State's Sarah Burnham for the second straight day, Lonardi will start the second round on No. 1 and tee off at 10:25 a.m. CDT. With the Baylor senior currently in fifth among the 12 players competing as individuals, she's in position to make the 54-hole cut following Sunday's third round when the field is narrowed to the top 15 teams and top nine individuals not on one of those 15 teams.
Baylor has had two top-10 individual finishes at the NCAA Championship, with Hayley Davis tying for 10th in 2014 and Dylan Kim placing fourth in the 72-hole stroke-play tournament last year.
