A Valparaiso University women’s golf record that had stood for nearly a decade was shattered by sophomore Madison Keil (LaGrange, Ind. / Lakeland) with her 54-hole performance this week. She turned in a top-10 finish, leading the team at the Brittany Kelly Cardinal Classic, which concluded on Tuesday at the par-72, 6139-yard Players Club in Yorktown, Ind.

How It Happened

• Keil finished in the top 10 with a 54-hole score of 220 (+4), closing out her strong tournament with a 73 (+1) on Tuesday. She finished tied for seventh in a 71-player field.
• Sophomore Anna Fay (Ada, Mich. / Forest Hills) also strung together her third straight sub-80 round, carding a 79 on Tuesday. She finished the tournament at 230, tied for 36^th.
• The third-best Beacon in the third round of the event was Kelsey Eichenauer (North Manchester, Ind. / Manchester), who posted an 81 on the final day of action.
• As a team, Valpo put together a round-3 score of 316 to finish the event at 936. Loyola won the 12-team event at 879, while Ball State’s Kiah Parrott was the individual medalist at 207.

Inside the Round

• The top-10 finish represented the first such finish of Keil’s collegiate career.
• Keil not only set a program record for 54-hole score, but she shattered it by five strokes. Michelle Kleckner’s mark of 225 had stood since the 2013 Golfweek Program Challenge.
• By finishing at +4, Keil also beat the previous program record for 54-hole tournament score in relation to par by five strokes. She outdid the previous mark of +9 set by Kayla Krueger at the 2019 Loyola Fall Invitational.
• Keil’s 73 on Tuesday matched a personal best and for the second time in this tournament, she put up an 18-hole score that is tied for eighth in program history.
• The team’s 54-hole score of 936 ranks third in program history behind only last season’s Redbird Invitational (931) and last year’s Butler Fall Invite (932). The team score in relation to par of +72 this week ranks second in program history, behind only +67 at the Redbird Invitational last fall.
• The Beacons produced 25 birdies, nearly half of which came courtesy of Keil, who finished with a dozen.

Thoughts from Head Coach Jill McCoy

“I’m so proud of Maddie. She played some great golf this weekend. She made a lot of putts, had a lot of saves for par, but also just played some really consistent golf. It’s really cool to see her settling down and confident. Hopefully a week off will help us work out some of the bugs, and we’ll be stronger as a team for the Butler Invitational.”

Up Next

Valpo will tee off the Butler Fall Invitational on Monday, Oct. 3 at Highland CC in Indianapolis.