Arkansas women's golf Coach Shauna Taylor, assistant Mike Adams and several Razorbacks were on hand Saturday to take in the Arnold Palmer Cup at the Alotian Club in Roland and support teammates Dylan Kim and Kaylee Benton.
The Razorbacks just finished a successful season that culminated in a quarterfinal showing at the NCAA Championships at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville. Maria Fassi also won the NCAA individual championship.
Taylor said Kim and Benton appearing in the Palmer Cup capped a tremendous year for her program.
"We wanted to come down and show our support for this tournament and see Dylan and Kaylee," Taylor said. "This just puts an exclamation point on their careers.
"We've been really blessed with the success we've had this season. Hosting the NCAA, watching Fassi win the individual championship, making it to match play for the first time, and now having Dylan and Kaylee playing in this, it's just been phenomenal."
Early victories
The U.S. team got off to a fast start Friday winning by 3.5 of the first 5 mixed fourball matches on its way to an 8-4 lead after the first day of competition.
The only International outright victory in those early stages came from the European duo of Auburn's Julie McCarthy and Texas Tech's Sandy Scott, which defeated Kaylee Benton and Patrick Martin (Vanderbilt) 3 and 2.
McCarthy and Scott were sent out first in Saturday's mixed foursome (alternate shot) matches. Their opponents were Chandler Phillips (Texas A&M) and Mariel Galdiano (UCLA), who blitzed Frida Kinhult (Florida State) and David Nyfjall (Northwestern) 4 and 3 in Friday's first match of the day. The end result was McCarthy of Ireland and Scott of Scotland making quick work of Galdiano and Phillips with a 6-and-5 victory, and the Internationals blitzed the U.S. 8.5-3.5 in the session to take a 12.5-11.5 lead into the afternoon.
"The coaches had confidence in us as a pairing and asked if we were confident leading off," said Scott, who sparked the Internationals to seven consecutive victories to start the morning. "I said I didn't have a problem, and we were glad to get that first point of the day."
Scott and McCarthy had never met before this week, but McCarthy said they have formed a good friendship and partnership.
"It's been nice to play alongside Sandy," McCarthy said. "He's a great player, and it's just real exciting to win our first two matches."
Phillips, who was on the giving end to open Friday's play, succinctly got to the point about Saturday's loss.
"We just got our a***s whipped," he said.
Playing tough?
Friday's opening round of mixed fourball matches produced eight eagles, including four on the par-5 8th hole that was playing 585 yards for the men, but only 455 for the women. That advantage left most of the women with a mid-iron coming into the green.
"We wanted to create a better chance of scoring, but still leaving a little bit of a challenge there," Alotian Club director of grounds and facilities Justin Sims said. "When you're playing match play, there's no reason to have a lot of difficult hole locations. So, we want to see them be aggressive and try different things. If it doesn't work, who cares? You just lost one hole."
Different strokes
Three sessions of mixed fourball, mixed foursomes and foursomes produced 265 birdies, 172 bogeys, 12 double bogeys and 11 eagles at the Alotian Club.
The lowest scores were shot during Friday's mixed foursomes, where the men and women on each side played their own ball while counting the lowest score between them.
There were 101 birdies, 12 bogeys and 8 eagles in the first round, and the United States led the International team 8-4 after the first day.
Scoring varied wildly Saturday, when the teammates alternated shots, with men teeing off on odd holes and women teeing off on even holes during the morning round.
There were 71 birdies, 81 bogeys, 7 double bogeys and no eagles in the morning, and the International team outscored the U.S. 8.5-3.5 to take 12.5-11.5 advantage.
Scoring improved in the afternoon round when men played with men and women alternated shots with women.
There were 93 birdies, 79 bogeys, 5 double bogeys and 3 eagles.
The best morning match pitted the International team of Sofia Garcia and Ivan Ramirez against Alex Scott and Abbey Carlson of the U.S., producing 12 birdies, 5 bogeys and 1 double bogey.
Garcia and Ramirez won 1 up, mixing 5 birdies with 2 bogeys and 11 pars. Scott and Carlson registered 7 birdies, 3 bogeys, 1 double bogey and 7 pars.
The best round in the afternoon was shot by the International team of Takumi Kanaya and Keita Nakajima, who posted 8 birdies and no bogeys en route to defeating Will Grimmer and Scott 5 and 3.
Grimmer and Scott didn't play poorly, birdieing 4 of their first 6 holes and 5 of their first 10, but they couldn't keep up with the two players from Japan, who were the only tandem to complete the round without a bogey.
Standard response
Standard bearers, who displayed walking scoreboards with each group Friday without "up" and "down" designations along with their numbers, had the problem corrected Saturday.
Friday, the standard bearers used red numbers (for down) and black numbers (for up) for the U.S. to indicate its individual match's score. For instance, if the U.S. was up 3, a black 3 was used. If the U.S. was 2 down, a red 2 was indicated.
All was corrected Saturday as up, down and tied placards were used with each walking scoreboard.
Master apprentice
Japan's Takumi Kanaya made the most of his opportunity to play in The Masters golf tournament two months ago, and he hasn't slowed down this weekend.
Kanaya, 20, the third-ranked amateur in the world, is 3-0 in matches at this weekend's Arnold Palmer Cup after finishing in a tie for 58th in the first major appearance.
Kanaya opened the tournament with back-to-back birdies to find his name on the leaderboard, briefly, and shot a 4-under 68 on Saturday while playing with four-time major winner Rory McIlroy.
He shot 6-over 78 on Sunday to fall back to 58th, but it did not diminish his experience.
"It was a dream for me to play," Kanaya said, "but the challenge is to come back next year."
To earn a second Masters invitation, Kanaya willl need to repeat as Asia-Pacific Amateur champion, which is how he earned his first Masters invite.
Before that, he gets a crack at the British Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
"It offers a different challenge," Kanaya said.
Sports on 06/09/2019