Jessica Cathey’s hole-in-one sparks Austin Peay State University Lady Govs at OVC Women’s Golf Tournament

Dickson, TN – Jessica Cathey’s hole-in-one on the 132-yard No. 11 hole sparked Austin Peay State University to a 305, Monday, and a tie for fourth place after two rounds of the Ohio Valley Conference championship, being played at GreyStone Golf Club.

As a result, Cathey was able to shoot a second-round 74, four shots better than her opening round. As a team the Lady Govs shaved 11 strokes off Sunday’s round. In fact, the 305 tied for second best round of the day and allowed APSU to move up from sixth place into a fourth-place tie with Murray State at 621.

Eastern Kentucky, which entered the day three strokes back of defending champ Jacksonville State, scorched the course with a 300, Monday, to jump into a five-shot advantage entering Tuesday’s final round. EKU stands at 608 while Morehead State is in second at 613, with JSU two shots further back.

“We made some putts today,” APSU coach Sara Robson said explain her team improvement. “We hit more greens and when we didn’t, we were chipping them fairly close. Other than the big numbers, we played solid golf today.”

Robson could only shake her head knowing how close the Lady Govs came to an outstanding score. APSU could black mark five double bogeys, one triple and one quadruple bogey on the day.

Still, though, she was proud of a team that played with greater confidence on Monday, a performance she had been awaiting much of the spring. However, it was Cathey’s hole-in-one everyone was talking about—and rightfully so—after the round.

“I am really proud of her,” Robson said. “I gave her the yardage and she hit the shot. There is a lot of luck involved in golf and it was just awesome to see it go in.

“We knew we wanted to play to the middle of the green, which is 120 yards, but there was wind there. With the wind you could only hit it 115 yards. When you tell a player to hit it 115 yards and she hits a great shot—and see her get rewarded like that—it is just a cool experience for her.”

Cathey is now tied for fifth overall with her 152. Almost lost in Cathey’s superb round was the play of senior Lauren Bond, who also had a two-over 74 for an overall 153, tying her for eighth place.

“Lauren had a great round,” Robson said. “She played super solid today. She had no big numbers. Lauren had a couple of bogeys but balanced those out with a couple of birdies. She played very confident today, but more importantly she hit the ball very well.”

Tala Mumford overcame a trio of double bogeys to shoot a 78 while fellow junior Rachel Deaton ended the round with six straight pars to finish at 79—those six straight pars came after six consecutive bogeys. Senior Tabitha Beard continued to struggle on the greens, finishing with an 85.

“Rachel finished strong,” Robson said. “She started out great and then got on a bogey train. But she really dug in and got par on the last six holes—those last six holes are some of the toughest on the course so to finish like that was great.

“Tala played well today. She had three bad holes—she has three doubles—and if you take away those three bad holes and she had an amazing round.”

The Lady Govs will tee off the OVC’s championship final round at 9:40am, Wednesday.

Box Score – Day 2