The Hawkeye women’s golf team hit the links for the first time on Monday, and a strong showing of team depth left the team sitting in third place after the first 36 holes of the Chip ’N’ Club Invitational in Lincoln, Neb.

Iowa is three strokes away from current first-place team Redlands Community College and two behind second-place SMU.

The Hawkeyes were led by juniors Kristi Cardwell and Gigi DiGrazia and freshman Lauren English.

The three each shot 10-over 154s on the day, good for a tie for 12th place.

Senior Chelsea Harris and freshman Shelby Phillips finished the day in a tie for 21st place with scores of 156 each.

“There were moments that were pretty good,” first-year head coach Megan Menzel said. “It was pretty windy this morning, so I thought that overall, we were being pretty calm and hung in there.”

While the team finished the day in contention for the lead, however, it had a chance to be in the No. 1 spot outright. Over the day’s final three holes, the team shot a combined 7 over par, which knocked them out of the top spot.

“We didn’t finish well today,” Menzel said. She cited fatigue as a possible reason for the “disappointing” finish and noted that players made a few “silly mistakes.”

She said she’s hopeful the team will bounce back and finish the final round in stronger fashion.

The Hawkeyes will tee off the last round in a shotgun start today at 8:30 a.m. at the Country Club of Lincoln. Live scoring will be available at GolfStat.com

— by Tork Mason