MESA, Ariz. – National meets are not supposed to be easy. And it wasn’t – at least for the opening round.

The opening day of the NJCAA National Women’s Golf Championships showed that Longview Golf Club in Mesa was not going to be a cakewalk. The Par 72 layout proved to be very challenging not only to the Barton Community College women’s golf team but to all 100-plus golfers on the course.

Only one golfer was able to break par and one golfer shot a 138. The Cougars navigated the course in a 73-over Par 361 to sit in 11th place overall. Seminole State (Fla) leads the way with a 303 followed by Daytona State College (Fla) at 304. Everyone else is at least 10 strokes behind the leader. Only seven teams shot better than 340.

Barton was led by Natthakan Teeratrakul, as is the norm. The sophomore from Thailand shot a 9-over 81 to sit in 23rd after the first day. Teeratrakul had trouble on two holes – shooting five of her nine over on No. 4 and No. 17. She opened the day with a 40 on the front side and followed with a 41.

Fellow Thailand freshman Hye Rin Kim struggled during the opening nine holes but rebounded with a solid back nine to finish with an 86. Kim had a triple-bogey and double-bogey on the front nine as she shot a 45. Kim had five pars on the back nine and shot a 41 to finish in 43rd after one day.

Abbie Thelen and Madison Walden both shot a 97 to open the tournament. Thelen, a sophomore from Meriden, birdied the first hole on her way to a 45-opening nine holes. The back nine was not good to her, though, finishing with a 52.

Walden, a sophomore from Wichita, also found par tough on the opening day, shooting a 47 on the front and a 50 on the backside. Walden birdied the final hole of the day which will hopefully give her momentum heading into day two.

Madison Werth, a sophomore from Great Bend, opened with a 56 on the front side and finished with a 53 for a 109 total.

Tiffany Chan of Daytona State shot a 1-under par to lead by two strokes after day one.


Top 10 Individuals
1 Tiffany Chan (Daytona St), 71
2 Josefine Garton (Seminole St), 73
3 Charatta Thongbai (Mesa), 74
4 Sydney Legacy (Seminole St), 76
4 Ji Sun Kang (Daytona St), 76
4 Caitlin Huiting (Seminole St), 76
4 Nikita Arjun (Spartanburg Meth), 76
8 Fabiana Salazar (McLennan), 77
8 Devanshi Naik (Western Texas), 77
8 Ivon Reijers (McLennan), 77
8 Iben Hvass (Western Texas), 77
8 Whitney Stevenson (Daytona St), 77


Barton scores
23 Natthakan Teeratrakul, 40-41—81
43 Hye Rin Kim, 45-41—86
79 Abbie Thelen , 45-52—97
79 Madison Walden , 47-50—97
95 Madison Werth, 56-53—109

Team Scores
1 Seminole State (Fla), 303
2 Daytona State (Fla), 304
3 Mesa (Ariz), 313
4 Redlands (Okla), 319
5 Western Texas, 322
5 McLennan (Texas), 322
7Tyler (Texas), 338
8 Rend Lake (Ill), 349
9 Iowa Western, 353
10 John A Logan (Ill), 356
11 Barton, 361
12 Sandhills (NC), 363
13 Des Moines Area (Iowa), 368
14 Pima (Ariz), 370
15 Bismark State (ND), 438