At the 2018 Schooner Fall Classic, the Texas women’s golf team turned in one of the program’s best performances in school history, breaking multiple 54-hole team and individual records. However, the Longhorns still came up short, finishing 17 shots behind the winner Alabama, which which put them in second place.
Fast forwarding one year later to this year’s Schooner Fall Classic, Kaitlyn Papp and her teammates would not settle for another runner-up finish, and the Longhorns captured their first tournament win of the season by nine strokes
over Alabama.
“It was obviously a great week for us,” said head coach Ryan Murphy to Texas Sports. “To come out on top in Oklahoma is a good win against these 14 teams. I’m very happy with our effort this week.”
Texas entered the final round at the Belmar Golf Club one stroke behind Oklahoma, but delivered a two under par performance on Sunday to run away with the title. The Sooners, who hosted the tournament, shot a tournament and team high 296 on the final day to drop from first to seventh.
Papp, now a junior, continued her strong start to the season with her second straight third-place finish individually, only one stroke back from Florida State’s Frida Kinhult and Illinois’ Tristyn Nowlin.
“At the moment, we are being led by (Papp),” said Murphy. “She’s playing some seriously good golf. I’m super proud of her.”
“Seriously good golf” might be an understatement for Papp, who only has one round over par this collegiate season, her top-five finish marking the eighth of her career.
Senior Emilee Hoffman picked up her first top-ten finish of the season with an even par performance, while sophomore Sara Kouskova finished at (+1) for the week but led the field with 13 birdies. Freshman Sophie Guo also ended at (+1) for the tournament and has recorded a pair of top-20 finishes in her first two collegiate tournaments.
Sophomore Hailee Cooper finished at (+7) overall but will look to rebound at next week’s Betsy Rawls Invitational, where Cooper won her first individual tournament last year at the University of Texas Golf Club
and Academy.
