MELBOURNE, Fla. – Junior Mathilde Delavallade (Royan, France) carded a 3-under, 69, and is currently in a three-way tie for the lead following the opening round of the Columbia Classic at Duran Golf Club. Penn State is tied for fourth in the 14-team field following a 7-over, 295, on Saturday afternoon.
Princeton and Texas Tech were the only two teams in red figures during the opening round as the Tigers lead the field by four strokes following a 6-under round. Texas Tech sits in second at 2-under while Tulsa is third at 6-over followed by the Nittany Lions who are tied with Notre Dame at 7-over to round out the top-5.
Delavallade began her round on the fifth hole and rattled off two birdies over her final three holes coming in including a closing birdie at the par-3 fourth hole to wrap up her round. In total Delavallade turned in a clean sheet on the front nine of the course and had just one bogey with four birdies on the day.
Senior classmates Sarah Willis (Eaton, Ohio) and Taylor Waller (Canonsburg, Pa.) carded matching rounds of 3-over, 75, and are currently in a tie for 25th position while senior Isha Dhruva (Katy, Texas) and sophomore Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) are tied for 31st following identical opening rounds of 4-over, 76, to round out the team scores.
The Nittany Lions are back on the course tomorrow morning for the second round with tee times spanning between 8:50 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. as Penn State will be paired with Notre Dame and Old Dominion and tee off the first hole.
Full opening round results available HERE.
