Golfers Stand in Eighth at Peg Barnard

Friday, April 11

Palo Alto, Calif.

All Day

Colorado

Rounds One/Two

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

April 11, 2008 | Women's Golf

By: Allie Musso, Assistant SID

PALO ALTO, Calif. ? The University of Colorado women's golf team stands in eighth place after the first round here Friday at the Peg Barnard Stanford Invitational, the Buffaloes final regular season tournament.

A challenging course helped inflate the scores of the individual field, as the best score recorded was an even-par 71, with 35 scores of 80 or higher posted on the day.

“This course is clearly a championship course,” said head coach Anne Kelly. “They double-cut the greens and it makes them extremely fast, almost like a US Open or Amateur-type green. They've hosted the NCAA Championships and Regionals here and you can see why.

“We're not happy with the way we played today, but I definitely think that this young team is getting great experience on very tough golf courses and are continuing to learn a lot.”

No. 17 California assumed the 18-hole lead with a 295 team score, which is 11-over par, good for a two-shot advantage over Washington. Colorado sits in eighth after the first round with a 315 score, or 31-over par.

CU sophomore Christine Kim opened the tournament with a two-over 73 on the 6117-yard, par-71 Stanford University course. She is tied for sixth overall, just two strokes out of the lead.

“I thought that the course was playing really hard and the pins were in tough places,” said Kim. “I tried not to worry and focus so much on putting and I was lucky that I got myself in relatively easy spots to make a few key putts. That's what I really focused on the most, just trying to make key putts all day and not go for birdies. The pins were hard and the greens were really fast, so birdies were hard to come by.

“I wasn't really thinking about golf that much today. I was just relaxed and just kept going along, and that really worked for me.”

“I'm really proud of the way Christine played,” said Kelly. “She's starting to come around and it was a tough golf course and she played a very solid round out here today.”

Freshman Stephanie Simich is tied for 28th individually, as she currently sits at seven-over (78) through the first round. Senior Lindsay Senger (80), junior Cierra Ko (84), and sophomore Dominique Pytlewski (90) round out Colorado's scoring five. All three continued to battle throughout the day but never could gain their desired momentum as the bogeys added up quickly for the trio.

Washington's Karinn Dickinson holds on to the first-day lead with an even-par 71. Fresno State's Hali Coppin, who is currently tied for 10th place with a total of 74, recorded an impressive hole-in-one on the 14th hole.

The tournament concludes Saturday morning with the final round teeing off at 8 a.m. The Buffaloes will be paired with the University of Hawai'i and Washington State.

“We're still continuing to battle injuries and illness this season, but our team is still determined to come back and do a lot better tomorrow,” said Kelly.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS

T 6 Christine Kim ............... 73

T 28 Stephanie Simich.......... 78

T 40 Lindsay Senger ............ 80

T 61 Cierra Ko ..................... 84

T 72 Dominique Pytlewski .... 90

TEAM RESULTS
1 California................ 295

2 Washington............ 297

3 Stanford................. 300

4 Oregon State.......... 303

5 San Jose State....... 307

6 Fresno State.......... 309