JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Junior Kristi O’Brien earned medalist honors and the IUPUI women’s golf team overcame a 10-shot deficit to win the four-team Bulldog Florida Invitational on Thursday. The Jaguars carded a final round 321 to pull even with Butler at 658 and was awarded the victory through a scorecard playoff.
O’Brien, of Irish heritage, capped her fifth career tournament win on St. Patrick’s Day with a final round 76 to finish at 154 (+10). She was seven shots better than her closest competition, Molly Fields of Butler. For the Fort Wayne-native that’s always clad in pink, green was the optimal word on Thursday.
“I looked at my stats from day one and saw that I didn’t hit very many greens,” O’Brien said. “I really concentrated on that and gave myself more birdie opportunities.
“We played well as a team,” O’Brien said. “We didn’t really know we had won the tournament until everyone got in and we started packing up the vans. The Butler coach came over to us and said we had beaten them by 10, so we asked if we were second to Eastern (Illinois). Then he told us we beat them too. We didn’t expect it.”