Kendall Todd had a knack for rebounding from mistakes throughout the Porter Cup and it was the reason she hoisted the championship trophy at the end.
Starting the day in third place, two strokes behind Canadian and fellow-SEC golfer Nicole Gal for the lead, Todd was determined to rebound from a frustrating end to her third round. Todd, an Arkansas junior-to-be, shot 1 under in the third round, but bogeyed three of her last six holes.
As Gal started her last round with three bogeys on the first four holes, Todd was steady, shooting par on the first eight holes and went without a bogey the entire round to finish with a 5-under-par 275 for the tournament, a two-stroke win over Gal. “It's very satisfying,” Todd said. “It was a great day. It was so clean, I didn't really have to stress about much and it was just a good day.”
After shooting 2 over in the first round, Gal made a torrid comeback to take the tournament lead, knocking in four birdies in the third round, including an eagle on 13. Feeling a little nervous going into the final round, Todd found herself behind early, but she birdied back-to-back holes to start the back nine to hop back into a tie for the lead, only to bogey 12.
“My putter was a little cold today,” said Gal, who plays collegiately for Ole Miss. “I still stayed patient and got it back to even and she just played great at the end. At that point there’s not much I could do. She played so solid.”
After leading for the first two rounds and entering the final round one stroke off the lead, 16-year-old Amelie Phung shot 4 over and finished the tournament third at 1 over, five strokes ahead of the rest of the field.
Defending champion Sarah Gallagher finished sixth at 9 over.
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