University of Colorado Athletics
Colorado
Round Three
Women's Golf Takes Best-Ever Third at Big 12 Championship
April 19, 2006 | Women's Golf
LINCOLN, Neb.?The University of Colorado women's golf team endured extremely windy conditions better than most of the field and were rewarded with a program best-ever third place finish here Wednesday afternoon in the Big 12 Women's Golf Championship at the Country Club of Lincoln.
No. 13-ranked Texas A&M rallied from a three-stroke deficit to defeat No. 17 Oklahoma State with a final round best 304 after the Cowgirls collapsed with a 30-over par score of 318. The Aggies took the team title with a score of 899 to best OSU's 910.
The average team round Wednesday was 32.75 over par, and the Buffs' ability to score in the face of 30 mile per hour constant winds and gusts reaching near 50 miles per hour proved invaluable as CU earned their best ever finish in the conference tournament with the second-best round of the day (311, or 23-over par). The Buffs battled back from 10th place after the first round with Tuesday's third-best team score (plus-8) to get into seventh, and then today's round of 311 earns them their first-ever podium finish in conference play.
“I'm so proud of these girls, they played with a lot of heart today,” said head coach Anne Kelly. “It is such a hard day out here today. They went out there and showed a lot of guts and a lot of heart. They played like Buffaloes today. We've been talking a lot the past month about what it means to play for the
Coming off a Tuesday round of 296, CU's the best ever in a conference championship, gave the Buffs the confidence they needed to play as solid golf as possible in the windy conditions. Maria Persson-Gulda finished fifth with a four-over 76, tying her best ever finish in any tournament, and freshman Lindsay Caljouw was ninth with a 77. This marks the first time that two Buffs have finished in the top 10, and the pair are just the third and fourth CU players to make the top 10. They join Sarah Bellinger (4th, 1999) and Jo Pritchard (6th, 2002).
Texas A&M's Ashley Knoll held on to her two-ay lead with a three-over 75 and finished the tournament with a one-under 215 to claim medalist honors. She was followed by Stephanie Wavro of
Senior Persson-Gulda ended her
Persson-Gulda played the first six holes of the back nine to par, while those around her faltered to a combined 12-over in six holes. She finished with a four-over 76 and the top finish of her career.
“I played really solid today,” said the Buffs' lone senior. “My bogey on 7 was a good bogey, the one on 8 wasn't so good, but I don't even remember my first nine holes. It was so windy today. It played such a big part. You had to pay really good attention to the wind right when you were hitting because it was swirling. It was even affecting putts. It was the hardest round of the tournament. I'm extremely happy for myself to finish this high, but I'm so much more happy for our team. It means a lot.”
Her morning got off to an interesting start, which may have helped the emotional senior relax for her last collegiate round.
“I woke up five minutes before we were supposed go to the van and go,” she said. “I got dressed, ran downstairs, and I had some cereal in a cup in the van. I warmed up, I couldn't move my shoulder too well but I worked that out, and then I just went out. I started off and I just lost things all over the place. I didn't have a pen, I didn't have any tees, but I did have a ball to play with.
“My chaotic morning might have helped. I just had to laugh at myself; before I came to college I was so irresponsible and unorganized. So it's funny that I played my last round that way. I think it took my concentration off it being my last round of college and onto just getting ready to play golf. I all was thinking was make putts, make putts. But I totally cried when I put my last putt in.”
The youngster Caljouw had a nice and easy morning compared to her team's elder stateswoman. She teed off and made four straight pars before a bogey on 14 tripped her up. Another bogey on 16 left her at two-over after nine. She opened with a pair of pars on the back nine, before three-straight bogey's pushed her to five-over. Another bogey on seven took her to plus-six, but a crucial birdie on No. 9 gave her a final round 77 and a top 10 finish.
“Well, we come from windy weather in
The Buffaloes got a pair of 79's out of junior Lindsay Koth and sophomore Lindsay Senger, though the pair went about it in different ways. Koth struggled to a five-over 41 on the front nine, but then put together a great back at plus-two, including a clutch birdie on No. 9.
“I think I stepped off putts a bunch of times all day today because of the wind,” said Koth. “I was about 130 yards from the hole downwind on the last hole, and I hit my 9-iron, and it went on the ridge on the front of the green and rolled toward the hole and almost went in. My putt was a three-footer for birdie so that was nice to close out that way.
“I got started and my front nine was horrible and I was in the trees all day. I really didn't know that everyone had bad rounds today across the board. But my putter was great today and helped me on the back. You know, you really can play in the wind, you just have to let it be your friend. We all did that today.”
Senger, a
“I knew everyone was struggling, and I bogeyed my second-to-last two coming in,” said Senger. “I told myself that my team needed me and pulled it together for par on the last hole. Early in the semester, everyone really struggled finishing. We really worked on it the past two tournaments. We worked on refocusing and a finding new way to finish weather it was getting a snack in or mentally resetting. Going into this, we were prepared to do what we needed to do, especially today.”
Junior Hannah Hoch struggled to her highest score of the tournament, a nine-over-par 81, but the contributions that the entire team made to CU's third place finish were not lost on her.
“I am so excited because it was such a team effort all week,” said Hoch. “My score didn't even count today, but I pitched in yesterday and everyone else did today.
“It's so amazing and it's so great because everyone did it together. Everyone contributed a score this week. We're so excited right now. We really had nothing to lose today, and we were already in our best spot ever. But we really didn't want to hold on to sixth or seventh, we were just trying to move up. We've practiced in wind like this a lot lately in
It helped send Persson-Gulda off in grand fashion. She not only led her team to its best tournament finish in 2005-06, and its first-ever upper division (top 6) conference finish, and had a season-best individual effort, besting her seventh place at the Heather Farr Memorial in October. Her previous best career finish was also fifth, which she took in the Lady Aztec Invitational as a sophomore and also last year at the Bronco Fall Invitational. The Buffs' previous best team finish in Big 12 was ninth place in 2000. Junior Koth attributed the team's performance to solid leadership.
“I think it's really good that Maria played in our No. 1 spot the last two days,” said Koth. “She didn't let her emotions get to her with it maybe being her last round. She stayed strong and didn't get emotional until it was all over. She had a great shot to get up to the green on her last hole and then made par and we were all there waiting for her. She played like a senior and like a leader and I'm proud of her.”
Though the Buffs will likely not receive a berth in the NCAA Tournament next month, Senger thought this week's effort was a good sign of things to come for the CU golfers.
“I would say that we came out today and we really wanted to play well, we don't want to be a bottom of the pack team,” she said. “We've really had to play in wind and so we were prepared for this. Everyone else has to play in this too so we needed to just go do it. Everyone played with a lot of heart today. Everyone wanted to contribute, which is exactly what happened.”
“I'm happy for all of us because we've all worked extremely hard,” said Kelly. “It's nice to see it pay off. It certainly is a nice way to finish off the season and is something to build on. Everybody is pretty excited.”
The Buffaloes return all but Persson-Gulda to the lineup next fall and will welcome in three freshmen to the team for the 2006-07 season. The Buffs will boast two seniors in Hannah Hoch and Lindsay Koth in what will be coach Anne Kelly's 10th season at
10th Annual Big 12 Conference
Women's Golf Championship Tournament
T5. Maria Persson-Gulda .............. 78-71-76?225
T9. Lindsay Caljouw................... 79-73-77?229
T23. Hannah Hoch ...................... 79-74-81?234
T37. Lindsay Koth ..................... 79-80-79?238
T40. Lindsay Senger.................... 82-78-79?239
Team Scores
1
2
3
T4
T4
6 Baylor............................ 307-309-315?931
7
8
9
10
11
12
Top 10 Individuals
1. Ashley Knoll (
2. Stephanie Wavro (
3. Anna Rehnholm (Baylor) ........... 75-72-76?223
4. Brenda Norris (
T5. Maria Persson-Gulda (
T5. Candie Herrera (
7. Pernilla Lindberg (
8. Julia Best (
T9. Lindsay Caljouw (
T9. Lauren Johnson (
T9. Jennifer Karr (
T9. Jessica Shin (
