Beaudreau leads Irish at Chattanooga Classic

By ANDREW McGUINNESS s ports e ditor

The c hattanooga c lassic, held at c ouncil Fire Golf c lub in c hattanooga, T n , from April 2-4, was important to the n otre d ame women’s golf team for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it was their final tournament before the upcoming Acc c hampionships. At a time of the year when the Irish need to be at their best, the team came into c hattanooga following two of their three lowest finishes of the season. They had previously placed 10th at the c lover c up and eighth at the Florida s tate m atchup during mid- m arch. Though those scores are a reflection of the team as a whole, the Irish were certainly hoping someone could break out in c hattanooga to help get things back on track. That person turned out to be senior Lauren b eaudreau. b eaudreau, who holds the program’s all-time record with a 206 (10 under par) performance at the Westbrook s pring Invitational in 2020, made a serious run at her own record this week. s he set the tone for the tournament with a 68 in the opening round. That score put her in first place at the time. b eaudreau continued her strong play over the final 36 holes. The Lemont, IL, native finished with an overall score of 211. That was good enough for five under par and third place overall. o nly Xavier’s e mma m c m yler (nine under par) and sm U’s m ichelle Zhang (seven under) finished ahead of her.

Junior c hloe s chiavone turned in a strong performance of her own. b oth she and b eaudreau scored a 71 in one round and a 72 in another. s chiavone bounced back from a 75 in the middle round, finishing the tournament with a 71 (one under par) for a total score of 218. That tied her with Yale’s Alexis Kim for 16th place.

Thanks in large part to that dynamic duo, the Irish recorded their first top-five finish since the c olumbia c lassic nearly two months prior. n otre d ame’s overall score of 876 put them in fifth place. The Irish finished just one stroke back of fourth place s outh Florida and six back on second place Xavier. sm U ran away with the tournament, as their overall score of 850 was 20 fewer strokes than Xavier. The Irish played consistent, mistake-free golf for most of the competition. Their 171 pars were tied with c olorado s tate for third most, and just three fewer than Xavier’s tournamentleading 174. b oth the Irish as a team and three of their five competing golfers turned in their lowest score of the tournament during the final round, showing improvement and building some momentum for the postseason.

With this, n otre d ame’s regular season officially comes to a close. The Irish competed in 10 events during the 2022-23 season, which began back on s ept. 18-20 at the b adger Invitational in m adison, WI. n otre d ame racked up five top-five finishes during the season. Their best came at the season-opening b adger Invitational, where they placed second. They will be back in action for the Acc c hampionships on April 13-16. The championships will take place at s edgefield c ountry c lub in Greensboro, n orth c arolina.

Contact Andrew McGuinness at amcguinn@nd.edu