Arizona Owns Clubhouse Lead Midway Through Second Round

The Woodlands, Texas – Arizona, energized by Thuhashini Selvaratnam’s 4-under 68 and Kayla Mortellaro’s 3-over 75, turned in the morning’s best round to take the clubhouse lead midway through the second round of the 2007 USGA Women's State Team Championship.

On another sticky and hot day on the par-72, 5,918-yard Jack Nicklaus design at The Club at Carlton Woods, Arizona’s combined 1-under 143 (4-over 292 over 36 holes) catapulted it past first-round leader Louisiana, which shot 10-over 154 for an aggregate 11-over 299 to drop into 12th.

Kyndall Ardoin of Louisiana watches her putt on No. 16 funnel into the hole Wednesday. (John Mummert/USGA)

North Carolina and Tennessee, which shared second place after Tuesday’s round, had afternoon starting times.

Selvaratnam carried the way for Arizona, carding birdies on six of her final nine holes. A 2006 runner-up at the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, the 31-year-old product of Tempe took advantage of what she called optimum conditions to score. The first of seven birdies in the round came on the 144-yard, par-3 17th hole. Selvaratnam started on No. 10. She dropped in a 15-foot putt, then followed suit with more birdies after she made the turn with a 3-footer on No. 1, an 8-footer on No. 2 and a 15-footer on No. 15. Playing in her fourth State Team Championship, she bogeyed her finishing hole to still come in with a 32. She equaled 33-year-old Dawn Woodard’s 4-under 68, which boosted Tennessee, on Tuesday for low individual round of the championship.

“I actually came for the team,” said Selvaratnam, eschewing any individual success. “I came to help them win a team medal. … It’s a team thing. We have to play two good rounds [Thursday].”

Arizona got the second decent round from 17-year-old Mortellaro of Phoenix. No stranger to USGA events, Mortellaro has appeared in eight individual championships, advancing as far as the quarterfinals in this year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links.

On the 315-yard, par-4 second, Mortellaro stuck her approach from 118 yards to within 2 feet of the flagstick before tapping in for her only birdie.

Mortellaro seemed nonplussed about her day, preferring to look ahead to the third round.

“It’s still an individual game,” she said. “You kind of feel bad if you miss a putt or something to let down the team.”

That statement echoed the sentiments of Louisiana’s Kyndall Ardoin, 16, of Gibsland, who again led her squad in scoring, following up a 1-under 71 in the first round with a 2-over 74. The two-time State Amateur champion kept Louisiana in the hunt by bouncing back from a double bogey on her first hole. She admitted to losing her concentration coming down the stretch, going bogey-bogey-par to finish out.

Even though Louisiana took a tumble, Ardoin still believes the team has a chance.

“We just have to get some rest and fire up tomorrow,” she said. “You don’t want to set goals in golf because if you don’t turn them, or you don’t do so well, you just put more pressure on yourself.”

An 8-over 152 dropped home-state Texas into a tie for 19th (18-over 306). Pride bruised, they vowed not to give up.

“Our mindset today was go as low as we can,” said reigning USGA Senior Women’s Amateur champion Anna Schultz, 51, of Rockwall, who led the team with a 3-over 75. “If there are 68s out there by other teams, there’s no reason why we can’t do it too.”

The Women’s State Team championship is one of the national championships conducted by the United States Golf Association. In each of the three, 18-hole stroke play rounds, the two lowest scores by players from each team constitute the team score for each round. The 54-hole total is the team’s score for the championship.

The USGA is the national governing body of golf in this country and Mexico, a combined territory that includes more than half the game’s golfers and golf courses.

Story written by Ken Klavon, Web Editor for the USGA. E-mail him with questions or comments at kklavon@usga.org.