Ashley Gilliam did nothing to hurt her chances of defending her Tennessee Girls’ Junior Amateur title on Wednesday (July 11).
In fact, she improved them.
The Manchester native and rising senior at Tullahoma High School fired a 68 at Old Fort Golf Club to move to 9-under par for the championship, leaving her six strokes up on Clarksville’s McKinley Cunningham entering the final round.
Thursday tee times begin at 7:30 a.m., with Gilliam, Cunningham and Kara Carter (Kingsport) set to go off at 10 a.m.
Gilliam, the 2017 Tennessee Girls’ Junior champion, has played 36 holes of bogey-free golf, including her opening round of 5-under, 67. She made two birdies on each side Wednesday.
Cunningham, who will be a junior at Clarksville High School, has also turned in back-to-back rounds of under par, going 71-70 to sit at 3-under for the tournament.
Carter, a sophomore at Sullivan South High School, followed up her opening-round 74 with a 69 and is 1-under.
Angelina Chan (Franklin) enters the final round in fourth place at 3-over, while Kendall Maynard (Clarksville) and Shelly Jang (Franklin) are tied for fifth at 5-over.
Jennaly Nolan (Knoxville) tied for the lowest round of the day on Wednesday as she rebounded from an opening-round 82 to card a 68. Maynard also had a solid turnaround as she went 80-69.
55TH ANNUAL
TENNESSEE GIRLS’ JUNIOR AMATEUR
OLD FORT GOLF CLUB
MURFREESBORO, TENN.
Through second round, final round on Thursday
1 Ashley Gilliam 67-68-135
2 McKinley Cunningham 71-70-141
3 Kara Carter 74-69-143
4 Angelina Chan 74-73-147
5 Kendall Maynard 80-69-149
5 Shelly Jang 77-71-149
7 Isabella van der Biest 76-74-150
7 Jennaly Nolan 82-68-150
9 Hannah Nall 74-77-151
10 Lindsey Hollis 76-76-152
10 Rheagan Hall 79-73-152
12 Lily Bloodworth 76-78-154
13 Cameron Waltman 78-77-155
13 Tzunami Polito 78-77-155
15 Ainsley Simms 81-75-156
16 Gracie Johns 80-82-162
16 Sadie Pan 80-82-162
18 Kallie Robertson 80-83-163
19 Alayna Perryman 80-84-164
20 Ellie Bloodworth 80-88-168
20 Rachel Chan 84-84-168
For complete scoring: https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/1330048F or updates during tournament play: www.twitter.com/tngolf