GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tusculum University women's golf team will open its 2021 spring schedule this coming week as the Pioneers compete at the Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate in St. Augustine, Florida this Monday and Tuesday.
This week's starting five for the Pioneers includes Jennifer Keim, Nilubol Panno, Hannah Brown, Olivia Cunningham and Madison DeWees.
Keim, a senior from South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, led the Pioneers with a 75.93 stroke average in her inaugural TU campaign last season. Her scoring average was the second lowest in school history, good enough to earn her team most valuable player honors and a spot on the All-South Atlantic Conference second team. She played in all seven events last season where tallied six top-20 performances including four times in the top-five. She posted back-to-back rounds of 73 to posted a two-over 146 to capture medalist honors at the Barton Intercollegiate. Keim scored a 17th place finish at last year's Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate with 84-78=162.
Cunningham finished second the roster last year with her 79.20 stroke average in her five tournaments and 10 competitive rounds. She finished in the top-20 on three occasions including a season-best fourth place showing in the season finale at the Barton Intercollegiate with 81-76=157. The Nashville, Tennessee junior carded a season-low 74 in the final round of the 2019 Patsy Rendleman Invitational as she tied for 23rd place. She finished 17th at last year's Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate with 83-78=161.
Cunningham has a career scoring average of 78.47 in her 30 career rounds giving her the fourth-lowest stroke average in program history. She has logged eight top-20 performances including five times in the top-10 and four top-five finishes.
Brown, a senior from San Tan Valley, Arizona, joined the TU program last spring where she played in three events and posted an 83.17 stroke average. She tied for 12th at the Barton Intercollegiate with an 82-83=165 score. She also finished 38th with 88-83=171 in last year's Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate.
Panno will be competing in her first tournament with the Pioneer program this week in Florida. The redshirt freshman from Phuket, Thailand won the 2019 Hurricane Junior Tour Open in Illinois and also captured first place honors at the Faldo Series Thailand Championship-South in 2018-19.
Also making her Tusculum debut this week is graduate student Madison DeWees. The Rowlett, Texas native joined the TU program last fall after competing on the Huntingdon College golf team where she ranked sixth in program history in career rounds played and tied for sixth in career birdies and eighth in scoring average. She posted an 85.00 scoring average last season in her five events including a season-low 76 at the Division II Golfweek Fall Invitational.
The two-day, 36-hole Spring Kickoff Intercollegiate is being held at The Golf Club at Hampton and hosted by Wingate University. The Bulldogs won last year's tournament with a team score of 613 while the Pioneers finished fifth with 657.
