Huffer and Laisne hope to chase down Ruffels for Four Winds first prize

SOUTH BEND – Since graduating from Notre Dame, professional golf victories have been rare for Becca Huffer — four in 2013, including the Colorado Women’s Open.

Saturday, the 33-year-old Huffer will have a chance to grab her biggest yet in the final round of the Epson Tour’s $200,000 Four Winds Invitational at South Bend Country Club. But in order to accomplish that, Huffer will have to chase down a golfer from Notre Dame’s athletic nemesis Southern California and hold off a former University of Texas All-American from France.

Huffer birdied four of her incoming nine holes on South Bend’s front side during an afternoon round of four-under 68 that left her at seven-under 137, two strokes behind Australia’s Gabriela Ruffels, the former Trojan who currently leads the Epson Tour in earnings with $126,283.

Day 1: Finn closes with pair of birdies to take first-round lead at Four Winds Invitational

Huffer, who is 13^th in tour earnings with a career-bests $48,701, is tied for second place with 24-year-old Paris resident Agathe Laisne, who won the Epson Tour’s opening tournament, the Florida’s Natural Charity Classic March 5, and is fifth in earnings with $72,502.

The 23-year-old Ruffels, already a two-time winner this season, fired the best round of the tournament, a seven-under 65 with seven birdies, in the calm conditions Friday morning to take command of the tournament. Huffer and the 24-year-old Laisne, who shot 69, had to battle afternoon gusts to gain their spots in Saturday’s final pairing off the first tee at 9:42 a.m.

Another stroke back at six-under 138 are four golfers — China’s Michelle Zhang (68) and Americans Amy Lee (69), Laura Wearn (70) and Katherine Smith (70). They and 68 others made the 36-hole cut in the tournament which will pay $30,000 to the winner. A victory would catapult Huffer well inside the Top 10 in earnings, which is where she needs to be to regain her LPGA Tour card.

“It was tough at the beginning, especially with the wind and playing the back nine (many of which lie near South Chain Lake),” said Huffer, who had a birdie at the par-5, 507-yard 12^th hole and then bogeyed the 424-yard, par-4 13^th. “I just felt if I could get through those holes, I’d see what I could do on the front nine.”

What to know: Four Winds Invitational is back at South Bend Country Club. Here's all you need to know

Huffer birdied the par-4 first, third and sixth holes of South Bend’s front and birdied the 496-yard, par-5 seventh for a four-under 33.

“Everything is feeling good,” Huffer said. “On these greens, you have to leave yourself in good spots. I did and on some I could have done better.”

Ruffels, who opened with a two-under 70 Thursday, took apart South Bend’s front nine with five birdies to turn in 32. She then made birdies at Nos. 12 and 15 and just missed another at the 475-yard, par-5 18^th.

“I’m super happy,” said Ruffels, who made a 30-foot birdie putt at No. 3 to get her round going and then added birdies at Nos. 4, 6, 7 and 8. “After Thursday, I thought a good score was out there because I hit it really solid. A lot of holes out here are gettable, especially the par 5s.”

The 24-year-old Laisne started her round Friday with bogeys at Nos. 10 and 13 but rallied with birdies at Nos. 15 and 18 to turn in even par 35 before she rode a roller coaster on the front nine, with five birdies offsetting two bogeys. She finished with a 10-foot downhill birdie putt at the difficult 327-yard ninth.

“I knew it was going to be tough in the afternoon with the wind,” Laisne said. “I just tried to be patient, hit fairways and greens and see if I could make birdies. The birdie putt I made at 9 was a bonus.”

FOUR WINDS INVITATIONAL

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Results after Friday’s second round of the $200,000 Epson Tour’s Four Winds Invitational at the par-72 (37-35), 6,414-yard South Bend Country Club:

135 (-9): Gabriela Ruffels (Australia) 70-65.

137 (-7): Becca Huffer (Denver, Colo.) 69-68; Agathe Laisne (France) 68-69.

138 (-6): Michelle Zhang (China) 70-68; Amy Lee (Brea, Calif.) 69-69; Laura Wearn (Charlotte, N.C.) 68-70; Katherine Smith (Detroit Lakes, Minn.) 68-70.

139 (-5): Ssu-Chia Cheng (Chinese Taipei) 73-66; Alyaa Abdulghany (Newport Beach, Calif.) 70-69; Heather Lin (Chinese Taipei) 70-69; Dottie Ardina (Philippines) 68-71; Gigi Stoll (Beaverton, Ore.) 68-71.

140 (-4): Robyn Choi (Australia) 73-67; Brooke Matthews (Rogers, Ark.) 72-68; Kaleigh Telfer (South Africa) 70-70; Jessica Porvasnik (Hinckley, Ohio) 70-70; Alena Sharp (Hamilton, Ont.) 68-72.

141 (-3): Emma Broze (France) 71-70; Minji Kang (South Korea) 71-70; Lakareber Abe (The Woodlands, Texas) 68-73.

142 (-2): Roberta Liti (Italy) 73-69; Teresa Toscano (Spain) 70-72; Michaela Finn (Sweden) 67-75; Jenny Bae (Suwanee, Ga.) 73-69; Isabella Fierro (Mexico) 70-72; Miranda Wang (China) 68-74.

143 (-1): Kim Kaufman (Clark, S.D.) 70-73; Natasha Andrea Oon (Malaysia) 74-69; Daniela Iacobelli (Melbourne, Fla.) 70-73; Kristen Gillman (Austin, Texas) 71-72; Amanda Tan (Singapore) 72-71; Anita Uwadia (England) 72-71; Haylee Rae Harford (Leavittsburg, Ohio) 71-72; Lindsey McCurdy (Kyle, Texas) 71-72; Hira Naveed (Australia) 69-74; Cassie Porter (Australia) 68-75; Pauline Del Rosario (Philippines) 71-72.

144 (E): Riley Smyth (Cary, N.C.) 75-69; Dorsey Addicks (Big Sky, Utah) 73-71; Amanda Kim (O’Fallon, Mo.) 73-71; Katie Yoo (Arlington, Texas) 73-71; Pinyada Kuvanum (Thailand) 73-71; Britney Yada (Hilo, Hawaii) 73-71; Alana Uriell (Carlsbad, Calif.) 70-74; Kaitlyn Papp Budde (Austin, Texas) 71-73; Therese Warner (Kennewick, Wash.) 70-74; KyungMi Kim (South Korea) 68-76; Cydney Clanton (Concord, N.C.) 68-76; Tzu-Yi Chang (Chinese Taipei) 73-71.

145 (+1): Clariss Guce (Artesia, Calif.) 71-74; Beatrice Wallin (Sweden) 73-72; Elodie Chapelet (France) 74-71; Katherine Hollern (Sedalia, Colo.) 73-72; Erika Smith (Orlando, Fla.) 73-72; Anne Yu (China) 73-72; Maria Bohorquez (Colombia) 71-74; Keera Foocharoen (Thailand) 77-68; Siyun Liu (China) 71-74.

146 (+2): Julie Aime (France) 73-73; Alexis Phadungmartvorakul (Bakersfield, Calif.) 77-69; Karen Fredgaard (Denmark) 75-71; Carley Cox (China Grove, N.C.) 74-72; Cynthia Lu (Chinese Taipei) 74-72; Jiwon Jeon (South Korea) 73-73; Nishtha Madan (India) 71-75; Yue Ren (China) 74-72; Sarah Jane Smith (Australia) 74-72; Alice Duan (Reno, Nev.) 74-72; Erica Shepherd (Greenwood, Ind.) 73-73; Jillian Hollis (Rocky River, Ohio) 72-74; Emilee Hoffman (Folsom, Calif.) 71-75; Jenny Coleman (Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.) 71-75; Mariel Galdiano (Pearl City, Hawaii) 71-75; Louise Ridderstrom (Sweden) 71-75; Angelica Moresco (Italy) 68-78.

Did not qualify

147 (+3): Annika Borrelli 76-71; Nataliya Guseva 76-71; Kristen Coleman 75-72; Emily Lauterbach 75-72; Fernanda Lira 75-72; Anais Meyssonnier 74-73; Maria Parra 74-73; Siri Patchana 74-73; Jessica Welch 74-73; Kenzie Wright 74-73; Lauren Cox 73-74; Yiyi Liu 73-74; Elizabeth Wang 73-74; Sarah Rhee 70-77.

148 (+4): Karen Chung 76-72; Jo-Hua Hung 76-72; Maddie McCrary 75-73; Michelle Piyapattra 75-73; Laetitia Beck 74-74; Bi Shin 74-74; Jessica Peng 71-77.

149 (+5): Ginger Howard Gould 79-70; Amelia Garvey 76-73; Kaitlin Milligan 76-73; Min A Yoon 74-75; Kendra Dalton 73-76; Laura Sluman 73-76.

150 (+6): Bobbi Stricker 77-73; Abegail Arevalo 76-74; Madison Young 75-75; Selena Costabile 73-77.

151 (+7): Marta Sanz Barrio 79-72; Tess Hackworthy 78-73; Sophie Hausmann 78-73; Ashley Lau 77-74; Madison Moosa 77-74; Kathleen Scavo 77-74; Min Seo Kwak 76-75; Nikita Arjun 75-76; Ingrid Gutierrez Nunez 75-76; Olivia Schmidt 75-76; Chanelle Avaricio 74-77; Samantha Vodry 72-79.

152 (+8): Emma Jandel 78-74; Chatprapa Siri Edell 78-74; Auston Kim 75-77; Min-G Kim 75-77; Gabby Lemieux 75-77; Kiira Riihijarvi 75-77; Savannah Vilaubi 74-78; Nannette Hill 72-80.

153 (+9): Maria Fernanda Escauriza 80-73; Elizabeth Moon 78-75; Alexa Melton 77-76; Catherine O’Donnell 77-76.

154 (+10): Ji Eun Baik 80-74; Joy Chou 76-78; Marissa Kirkwood 71-83.

155 (+11): Anna Redding 81-74; Tsai Ching Tseng 79-76.

156 (+12): Samantha Troyanovich 81-75; Jennifer Rosenberg 79-77; Sarah White 79-77.

157 (+13): Vicky Hurst 80-77; Moeka Nishihata 80-77.

158 (+14): Sarah-Eve Rheaume 78-80.

159 (+15): Haley Moore 80-79.

165 (+21): Brigitte Dunne 78-87.

Other: Shuangshuang Fan 77-WD.

SATURDAY’S FINAL ROUND

No. 1 tee

7:30 a.m.: Cassie Porter, Riley Smyth, Amanda Kim.

7:41: Daniela Iacobelli, Kim Kaufman, Hira Naveed.

7:52: Pauline Del Rosario, Kristen Gillman, Haylee Harford.

8:03: Amanda Tan, Anita Uwadia, Lindsey McCurdy.

8:14: Miranda Wang, Michaela Finn, Natasha Andrea Oon.

8:25: Jenny Bae, Isabella Fierro, Teresa Toscano.

8:36: Minji Kang, Lakareber Abe, Roberta Liti.

8:47: Kaleigh Telfer, Alena Sharp, Emma Broze.

8:58: Robyn Choi, Brooke Matthews, Jessica Porvasnik.

9:09: Heather Lin, Dottie Ardina, Gigi Stoll.

9:20: Katherine Smith, Ssu-Chia Cheng, Alyaa Abdulghany.

9:31: Michelle Zhang, Amy Lee, Laura Wearn.

9:42: Gabriela Ruffels, Becca Huffer, Agathe Laisne.

No. 10 tee

7:30 a.m.: Dorsey Addicks, Tzu-Yi Chang, Katie Yoo.

7:41: Pinyada Kuvanun, Britney Yada, Kaitlyn Papp Budde.

7:52: Alana Uriell, Therese Warner, Cydney Clanton.

8:03: KyungMi Kim, Keera Foocharoen, Elodie Chapelet.

8:15: Katherine Hollern, Erika Smith, Beatrice Wallin.

8:25: Anne Yu, Maria Bohorquez, Siyun Liu.

8:36: Clariss Guce, Alexis Phadungmartvorakul, Karen Fredgaard.

8:47: Alice Duan, Cynthia Lu, Sarah Jane Smith.

8:58: Carley Cox, Yue Ren, Erica Shepherd.

9:09: Julie Aime, Jiwon Jeon, Jillian Hollis.

9:20: Jenny Coleman, Mariel Galdiano, Louise Ridderstrom.

9:31: Emilee Hoffman, Nishtha Madan, Angelica Moresco.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Second round of Epson Tour's Four Winds Invitational at South Bend Country Club