The Eastern women’s golf team finished the first 36 holes of the F&M Austin Peay Intercollegiate Monday afternoon.

The Panthers finished with a team score of +100 par, which puts them in last place on a nine-team field. Southern Illinois­–Carbondale finished the first day in first place with a team score of +30.

Eastern and the rest of the teams are playing at the Clarksville Country Club, which is a par 72, 6038-yard course.

Eastern’s women’s golf team did not play this course last season.

Ohio Valley Conference teams flooded the field as Tennessee State, Morehead State and Belmont joined Eastern and tournament-host Austin Peay.

Austin Peay was the top OVC finisher in the field, coming in at +47 par, putting them in third place.

Eastern’s top finisher was junior Daphne Chang as she came in tied for 20th in 54-golfer field. Chang shot +15 par after shooting an 83 on the first 18 holes and a +4 76 on her next 18.

The Panthers are carrying six golfers, the entire team, for the tournament. Most of Eastern’s golfers finished in the bottom of the pack.

Senior Anne Bahr came in second for the Panthers, in tied for 38th place overall, with a 36-hole score of +21. Senior Hannah Magda came in tied for 45th with a 36-round score of +28.

Freshman McKenzie O’Brien, junior Katlyn Hasprey and freshman Sara Guetersloh round out the Panther golfers finishing in 50th, 52nd and 53rd, respectively. O’Brien and Hasprey finished close together with +33 and +36 scores.

Guetersloh finished +50 for the first 36 holes.

Even though Southern Illinois is sitting atop the leaderboard as a team, its top golfer was in fourth place. Belmont’s Mallory Sullivan is the leader through the first 36 holes after shooting +2 par.

Sullivan shot +2 par on the first 18, but knocked off two strokes on her second 18 and shot an even par.

Southern Illinois’ top finisher after the first day was Alice Ho as she shot +5 par with teammate Moyea Russell finishing right behind her at +7 par.

Louisiana-Monroe’s Shani White and Radford’s Khushboo Thiagaraj are right behind Sullivan at +3 and +4.

Tuesday’s final 18 holes will have at least five golfers fighting for the top spot. Russell is five strokes back, but had a much better second 18 Monday. She dropped five strokes in the second 18 and rounds like that will put here close to the top.

Eastern will not have a medalist for this tournament. On the bright side for Eastern, five of its six golfers had significantly better second 18 rounds.

Chang dropped seven strokes, Bahr dropped five strokes, O’Brien five strokes and Guetershloh dropped four strokes.

In the past, the team has said that what matters is improving each 18 that they play and at the end, collectively improve as a team.

The teams will start play tomorrow morning and play the final 18 to wrap up the Intercollegiate.

Eastern will have two weeks off before teeing it up again at the Dayton Flyer Invitational Oct. 14 and 15.

Sean Hastings can be reached at 

581-2812 or smhastings@eiu.edu