Day two of the Tiffin Invitational didn’t go as planned for the No. 16 Grand Valley State women’s golf team.

It didn’t matter.

GVSU carded a 16-over-par 304 on day one, good enough for what proved to be an insurmountable 17-stroke lead. Despite a 45-over 333 on Monday, it was smooth sailing for the Lakers. The team won by eight strokes, besting second-place Findlay and third-place Ashland. 

“I mean the conditions were definitely tougher than they were the first day,” said senior Kelly Hartigan. “I think it maybe got to everyone’s head a little bit. Having a 17-stroke lead going into the last day of the tournament, it’s kind of hard to set goals for yourself and know that you have to play well to win. 

“We talked about it before we went out. We had individual things that we all wanted to work on but I think it will just be a motivational factor the next couple of weeks and going into postseason.”

Hartigan fired a tournament-best 1-over-par 73 on Sunday and an 11-over-par 83 on Monday. She finished in third place with the 12-over performance, just two strokes out of first place.

“I made four birdies,” said Hartigan, who now has four consecutive top-five finishes. “I was putting well. I still had a few bogeys in there obviously, but I hit the ball well and we worked on short game like the whole week before so that kind of helped me out the first day as well.”

GVSU junior Gabrielle Shipley finished second for GVSU, tying in fifth place with a 4-over 76 and a 12-over 84. Shipley, currently the No. 5 golfer in Division II, now owns seven top-five finishes this season.

“This season I’ve really been working hard on my emotions and my mental game because that is something you should always be able to control,” she said. “You can’t really control much in golf so I really worked hard on controlling the things that I can and keeping those working with me and not against me. 

“I definitely did that (Monday) even though it was a rough day. I really tried to stay positive and I did my routine through everything, even though my shots weren’t ending up like they were supposed to.”

Coach Rebecca Mailloux said the steady play of Hartigan and Shipley has been huge for GVSU.

“You have two players who are going to be going out there each week and competing for an individual title and helping the team win a title as well,” Mailloux said. “That gives the others a lot of confidence…”

Sophomore Alex Taylor shot a 20-over-par 164 and finished in a tie for eighth place, her second top-10 finish in as many tournaments. 

Sophomore Danielle Crilley tied for first in par-5 scoring and finished in a tie for 10th place.

The Lakers are back in Ohio this weekend for the JBMF Cavalier Classic in North Canton. 

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