May. 11– Freshman Kelly Godwin started strong and ended strong on day three of the NCAA Division II Women's Golf Championships at Stonebrook Golf Club in Pace, Fla. She finished the third round with a 79, putting her three round score at 234, 18 strokes over par and tied for 23rd place out of the 48 women's golfers in the championship field.

Godwin started out hot with a birdie on hole two sandwiched in between pars on the first and third holes (Godwin on hole three yesterday, pictured left). She was one-under par after three holes and one-over after six holes. She finished the front nine with a respectable 39, three-over par.

The back nine started out rough for Godwin as she miscued on the 10th hole with a triple bogey and a 475 yard par five hole that she had hit pars on in the first two rounds. She added bogeys on holes 11 and 14 (pictured below right on hole 14 yesterday) with pars on 12 and 13.

The rough start to the back nine put her at eight over for the day with four holes remaining. In the second round, Godwin breezed through the final four holes with pars to close out her round.

Today in the third round, Godwin would one-up that performance, sinking pars on holes 15-17 before sinking a birdie on the 18th hole, a challenging 377 yard par four hole.

The birdie kept Godwin's score under 80 for the third consecutive round at the championships, as she closed out the day with a 79. She was finished with her round before a one hour, 59 minute delay was caused by lightning.

Godwin sits four strokes out of the top 20, where three golfers are tied for 18th with a 230. She's three strokes out of 21st and one stroke from moving up to 22nd. Godwin tees-off tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. central time.

photos courtesy Joey Cooke, University of West Florida Sports Information