Lauren Tibbets putts during the 2017 Butler Fall Invitational. The women’s golf team will compete in the Big East Championships from April 19-21. Collegian file photo.
JOSH MULLENIX | STAFF REPORTER | jmulleni@butler.edu
The Butler women’s golf team heads to Callawassie Island, South Carolina, to compete in the 2019 Big East Championships April 19-21. The Bulldogs will compete against Xavier, Seton Hall, Georgetown, St. John’s and Creighton.
Of the six teams in the Big East Conference, Butler ranks fifth in scoring average as a team. Over 24 rounds, the Bulldogs averaged 314.83 strokes. In every round, each team’s best four individual rounds count toward the total team score for the round.
Despite sitting in the bottom half of the conference in scoring average, Butler is tied with Xavier for the most wins as a team this season with three.
So far this season, the women’s golf team has brought home three team championships along with three other top-six performances as a squad. Experience has been key to Butler’s season, as two of its three wins came at courses on which the Bulldogs have previously played.
Butler’s first win of the season came back in October at the Butler Fall Invitational at Highland Golf Club. Being Butler golf’s home track, the home course advantage proved the difference maker and the tournament was one of their best performances of the season. It was Butler’s only 36-hole tournament victory of the year.
Butler’s final two tournament wins came at one-day tournaments in the spring. Over spring break, Butler won the 18-hole event at the Savannah State Spring Fling on March 14. The Bulldogs then won another Indianapolis area event in the Big Four Classic at Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana.
Senior Lauren Tibbets has been the catalyst for Butler’s success all season. She won the Butler Fall Invitational as well as the individual title at the Big Four Classic. The Bulldogs have an average placing as a team of 4.5 when Tibbets finishes in the top 10 individually.
Tibbets has represented the Bulldogs well on the conference level as well, finishing ninth in the Big East in regular season scoring average. The senior averaged 75.71 in 24 rounds this season.
Behind the leadership of Tibbets, Butler has gotten solid contributions from an array of sophomores on this year’s squad. Ally Ross carded 24 rounds this season after just 12 in 2017-18 and lowered her scoring average by three strokes to an 80.63.
Megan Skoog, another sophomore, played in 22 rounds after playing in just three in her first year of collegiate golf. She also saw a drastic change in her scoring average, lowering it from an 84.33 to an 80.77.
Playing well as a team with three top fives and two wins in their last five events, Butler heads to a course it has been successful on in recent years. At the 2017 Big East Championships, the Bulldogs finished second, only nine strokes behind Georgetown over three days. All five Bulldogs finished in the top 20 individually and Tibbets won the individual title, firing 77, 71, and 70.
Last season, they struggled slightly, finishing in fourth, but still had four players in the top 25 individually. Tibbets carded 78s in rounds two and three but a tough first round left her out of contention for the individual title.
The Bulldogs will try to dethrone the Georgetown Hoyas, who have won the last two Big East Championships.
