Photo credit: Credit – Terrell Lloyd, San José State Athletics
“You make a birdie, and you make a birdie!” That was a theme for the San José State University women’s golf team on Monday as the team made 40 birdies over two rounds and is second at the Gunrock Invitational at seven-under 569 at the Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento.
Junior Antonia Malate shot the two best rounds of her collegiate career and is tied for first a nine-under 135. She started the day with a four-under 68 in round one and followed that with a five-under 67 in round two. Malate is just the 11th player in school history to record a 67 in a college tournament. She leads the field in birdies made with 12.
Malate, starting both rounds on hole #5, began the first round with three pars, but made back-to-back bogeys on #8 and #9 before going birdie-par-birdie-par. She made her last bogey of the day on #14 and proceeded to make three consecutive birdies, a par, two more birdies and end with two pars. Her bogey-free second round 67 found her making five birdies and 13 pars.
“Antonia has been working on her length, and that really paid off today,” said Spartan head coach Dana Dormann. “She gave herself shorter birdie attempts and she was to capitalize on them. It funs to see her play so well.”
Kajsa Arwefjäll is currently tied for sixth at four-under 140, and shot her lowest collegiate score with a three-under 69 in the first round. She started her rounds on #4 and went par-par-bogey. After that, Arwefjäll rebounded to make birdies on two of the next three holes to get to one-under par. She then made six consecutive pars, two birdies and finished with four pars for her 68. Her second round featured 13 pars, three birdies and two bogeys for her one-under 71.
“Kajsa is hitting the ball really well and is getting lot of birdie opportunities. She has a great attitude and striking the ball solidly. Hopefully she can get a few more birdies to fall,” said Dormann.
Louisa Carlbom is tied for 28th at three-over 147, including a one-under 71 in the first round. After shooting three-over for her first 11 holes on the day, her scorecard turned into a checkerboard making birdie-par-birdie-par-birdie-par-birdie to end the first round. She shot a 76 in the second round with four birdies make.
Jadan Gonzalez is tied for 34th at five-over 149. She shot a 78 in the first round, and the shot her first under-par round with a one-under 71 in round two. After making one birdie and 11 pars in her first round, Gonzalez started the second round with back-to-back birdies. After her ball got stuck in a tree and she had to take a seven on the par-four 11, she came back with four consecutive pars and was three-under for her final seven holes played.
Jordyn Parr was consistent on Monday, shooting a 76 in each round and is tied for 50th at eight-over 152. She made three birdies in the first round and had two birdies and 10 pars in the second round.
For the day, the Spartans shot a five-under 284 in the first round, tying for the eighth-best score in school history. The team followed that up with a four-under 285 in round two, tying for the ninth-best score in school history. The 36-hole total of 569 ties for the fourth-best in school history with the 2018-19 team that won the Minnesota Invitational.
Stanford leads the field at 20-under 556, and shot a 278 in each of the first two rounds. SJSU has a two-shot lead over host UC Davis. In all, five teams shot under par for the first two rounds. The Spartans and Cardinal each made 40 birdies over the two round to lead the field.
“It is fun to see us make some putts for birdies. We are playing more aggressive and setting ourselves up to make more birdies. Our ability to hit the ball longer makes it conducive to have really low rounds,” stated Dormann.
Final round action begins Tuesday with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. The Spartans start on the first four holes with Stanford and UC Davis.