Women’s golf kicks off season with sixth place finish at Stetson

Brady Fitch photo: Katelyn Altese takes a swing during a golf event.

Golf season is officially underway for the Troy women’s golf team. They have been out of action since Oct. 23 after finishing 13th in Mississippi State’s The Ally tournament.

Their first taste of action this spring came at the Babs Steffens Invitational. Troy joined the host team -- Stetson -- at the DeBary Country Club in DeBary, Florida. The field also includes Seton Hall, St. Johns and Bethune-Cookman.

“We have had probably the best offseason that we’ve had since I’ve been at Troy,” head coach Randy Keck told Troy Athletics.

The two-day tournament gives the Trojans a chance to improve their performance during the fall season. Their highlights from the fall include placing in the top five four times.

The Trojans finished the invitational in sixth place out of the 15 team field. Katelynn Altese led Troy after a scorching second day, finishing in 12th place overall.

Altese had two birdies in the final round, shooting four over par to rocket up the leaderboard.

Freshman Mathilda Ringblom was second on the team -- she had two spectacular +3 rounds but had a rough final round that dropped her to 26th place overall.

“We’ve got a little bit of an older team, and they are hungry,” “We thought we played well enough to win once or twice in the fall, and that left a bad taste in our mouth,” said Keck.

Through 18 holes, the Trojans were tied with Keiser for fourth place. Both teams were 33 over par, with Keiser having the slight edge in the standings after shooting +19 to Troy’s +11.

An early bright spot for the Trojans was Ringblom. The Swedish born golfer was tied for tenth after day one’s 18 holes. In just her second appearance she shot +3 overall.

Not far behind and tied for 17th place was junior Altese. Altese also found herself shooting +3 on the day. This comes on the heels of her fall campaign where she shot a 4.77 score vs par.

After Tuesday’s action wraps up, the Trojans will turn their attention to the Huntsville.org Intercollegiate held by Samford. The event is scheduled to tee off on Monday, Mar. 3 and conclude on Mar. 4. Troy placed second out of 16 teams in last year’s rendition of the event.