Weir Shoots Career Low, Wildcats Fight Off Slow Second Round Start

SAN MARCOS, Texas – Chloe Weir admitted to K-State coach Kristi Knight she was nervous at the tee box on No. 12 in round two. 

"I've never been four under before," the redshirt senior from Belfast said, to which Knight responded, "Well let's get five under then, it's not as nerve-wracking." 

Weir did exactly that and finished with the lowest 18- (4-under 68) and 36-hole (5-under 139) scores of her career, leading all Wildcats in a tie for 12th place individually. The Wildcats sat in 10th place tied with Florida State and UNLV (569) with 18 to play Monday morning.

"Chloe did a nice job, she holed a lot of putts, she saved a lot of pars," Knight said. "She had a lot of good shots, she also had some shots that didn't go to plan but she has the short game that she made some really quality saves."

Weir caught fire out of the gate, shooting six birdies in the first round and finished with the ten on the day. She was one of three total Wildcats under par in the first round with junior Niamh McSherry (3-under 69) and sophomore Heather Fortushniak (2-under 70) also going low. K-State shot 41 birdies on the day, the second most in the field. Weir's ten were tied for third most individually, while freshman Haley Vargas and Fortushniak followed with nine apiece.

K-State stumbled to start the second round however, with the team score ballooning to 5-over through the first nine holes and falling down the leaderboard from the seventh spot. The Wildcats fought back with eleven birdies over the last nine holes to finish 1-over for the round. Included in the strong close were four from birdies Vargas, who shot a career-best 69 (-4) in the second round. 

"The second round we got off to a rocky start," Knight said. "The ladies battled back. I'm proud of them. Coach Jared (Helin) and I really like how the ladies responded. When you have a 36-hole day and have a really good start and then in the second round things get sideways, putts aren't falling, it's easy to lose your patience. The ladies hung in there. Lot of good things today, saw a lot of good golf shots. All in all it was a really positive day."

McSherry shot 2-under 142 on the day after a 1-over 73 round two and sat tied for 29th in the field. She also shot K-State's only eagle for the day in round one on No. 3, a 492-yard par-5 hole. Vargas' low round was a bounce back from a 3-over 75 during the first round and was tied for 39th at even-par 144. Cooled off from her under-par performance in the first round, Fortushniak double-bogeyed two straight holes on the front nine of round two and finished the day 3-over and tied for 58th (70-77--147).

Junior Reid Isaac finds herself in unfamiliar territory after shooting 73-76--149 (+5) and tied for 64th. This is the first time Isaac has not shot at or under par in the first 36 holes this season, but two straight birdies on No. 5 and 6 helped the Wildcats from falling further in the standings at the end of round two.

"Reid didn't have the best day, but the competitor she is, she birdied those two holes," Knight said of the late rally. "She kept fighting and we needed that score this afternoon. Those two birdies by her late were big."

No. 45 Texas Tech sits atop the leaderboard tied with No. 15 Mississippi (552), fifteen shots ahead of K-State, though the Wildcats were only eight shots out of the top-5. TTU's Amy Taylor and Gala Dumez are tied with Mississippi's Julia Johnson and Oklahoma's Kaitlin Milligan for a four-way draw at first place, all shooting 8-under 136.

The Jim West Invitational concludes with a final 18 holes on Monday, beginning with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m.

"Overall, I'm proud of the ladies today," Knight said. "They showed some resilience today and climbed back from a rough start in round two. I'm really pleased that they bounced back from that, we're in a good position. We have an opportunity for a really good finish."