AMES—After a wobbly start in the wind, the Central College women's golf team steadied itself enough to stand in second place after the opening round of the 54-hole American Rivers Conference tournament Saturday.
           
Wartburg College leads at 324 in the tightly bunched field with Central at 327, the University of Dubuque at 329 and Coe College at 333 at the par-71 Ames Country Club.
            
The Dutch had a near-disastrous par-5 opening hole with their five players playing it at 14-over-par.
           
"It was a little bit of a tough start but overall I felt like we battled back," coach Tabitha Schumacher said. "It's pretty windy today and the greens are tough to hold. Overall, I felt pretty good, but it would be nice to have No. 1 back, for sure."
           
Thea Lunning (junior, Mason City) and Delaney Underwood (junior, Mitchellville, Colfax-Mingo HS) each shot 81 and are tied for fifth place individually. Mackenzie Biggs (sophomore, Bloomington, Ill., Normal HS) had 82 and shares 10th, Madison Clark (junior, Bloomington, Ill., Central Catholic HS) shot 83 and Peyton Bytnar  (sophomore, Bettendorf) had 85.
           
The Dutch have three players averaging under 80.0 for the season but couldn't crack that number Saturday.
           
"It's probably the first time where everyone's had a rough patch but to have that and have 85 be our highest number is still pretty good," Schumacher said. "I'm pretty proud of how the battled."
          
 Schumacher is confident better results are coming.
           
"They know they left strokes out there, but it's just a matter of continuing to do what they're doing and see what happens," she said. "I don't think they necessarily had a bad game plan. It's just that when it's windy like that on the course you can get some bad breaks.
           
"We're still right there in contention."