Buffs Ninth But In Contention At Big 12 Championship

COLUMBIA, Mo. – In a day that saw nearly four hours of weather delays, the No. 31 University of Colorado women's golf team is tied for ninth at the 2011 Big 12 Championships, but just eight strokes behind the leader after 18 holes here Friday at the Club at Old Hawthorne.

Playing in their final Big 12 Championships before joining the Pac-12 next season, the Buffs shot a 14-over 302, eight strokes behind leader Texas Tech, who shot a 6-over par 294. Texas sits in second place at 8-over par 296 while Nebraska and host Missouri are tied for third at 9-over par 297 and Texas A&M and Oklahoma are tied for fifth at 10-over par 298. Iowa State (300) and Baylor (301) sit just ahead of the Buffs, who are tied with Kansas and Oklahoma State.

“It was probably our worst day of the spring,” CU coach Anne Kelly said. “But the bright spot is that we're eight strokes behind the leader. We have our work cut out for us, we obviously need to play better, but we're not out of it by any means.

“It's really jam packed,” Kelly said of the fact that 11 of the 12 teams are within eight strokes after the first round. “That goes to show the quality of women's golf in general, but especially in the Big 12, it's super competitive. It's probably the worst day of the springs but I don't think we shot ourselves out of it.”

As usually happens at the Big 12 Championships, weather was a factor, as play was delayed three hours at the start of the day and then the Buffs were one of the few teams still on the course at 5 p.m. when thunderstorm, tornado and lightening warnings delayed play for another 45 minutes. The result were wet and muddy fairways and nearly unplayable bunkers.

“More often than not, you have weather at the Big 12 Championships,” Kelly said. “But you know that coming in. We just made some mental errors and missed a lot of birdie putts, and hopefully we can clean those things up tomorrow.”

Juniors Emily Talley and Jess Wallace were both bright spots for the Buffs, as Talley sits tied for sixth after shooting an even par 72 and Wallace is one stroke back at 1-over par 73 and is tied for ninth place.

Talley had 16 pars, one birdie and one bogey, playing a solid round in the hardened conditions. She played her first three holes at even par and then went to 1-under with a birdie on the par 4 fourth hole. Three holes later she bogeyed the par 3 seventh and then pared out the last 11 holes to stay in contention. She is just one stroke behind a five-way tie for first at 1-under par.

“Emily was rock solid, she had a good ball striking day,” Kelly said. “She hit a lot of balls in regulation and was very consistent. She missed some birdie putts, but still had a very solid day with 16 pars.”

Wallace would've been tied for the lead had it not been for her double bogey on the 18th hole. She struggled early, sitting at 3-over par through six holes, but then caught fire and birdied three of the next four holes and was back to even par by the 10th hole. She had five straight pars and then birdied the 16th which would've put her tied for the lead had it not been for her double bogey on the 18th.

“Jess got off to a bad start and really brought it back strong,” Kelly said. “Then unfortunately she had a really bad finishing hole. She got stuck in a bunker and they're very wicked. “

Freshman Jenny Coleman sits tied for 46th at 6-over par 78. She double bogeyed her first hole and bogeyed the fourth but then got pars on her next five holes to finish 3-over on the front nine. She bogeyed three holes on the back nine with pars on the other six holes to finish out at 6-over par.

Freshman Kristin Coleman is one stroke behind her sister at 7-over par 79. She had a stretch of nine holes between the No. 4 and No. 12 holes where she shot 6-over par and looked to have been closing strong with five straight pars leading up to the No. 18 where she scored a bogey to finish at 7-over.

“No matter how many tournaments you've played in as a freshman, your first Big 12 Tournament is nerve racking,” Kelly said. “So I'm hoping we got the butterflies out today and be better tomorrow.”

Sophomore Taylor Doyle was one stroke behind Kristin Coleman at 8-over par 80 and is tied for 57th. She pared her first three holes and then took a double bogey on the fourth, but rebounded with a birdie on the next hole to pull back within a shot of par. Between the par 3 seventh and par 5 15th, however, she had seven bogeys and a pair of pars before paring out her last three holes to finish at 8-over.

Saturday's second round has been postponed by an hour, even though the weather is supposed to clear up a bit. The course crew needs some additional time to tend to the fairways and bunkers. The initial forecast for Sunday is additional inclement weather.

BUFFALOES INDIVIDUALS

Rk.	Team	Score
t-6.	Emily Talley	72
t-9.	Jessica Wallace	73
t-9.	Jenny Coleman	78
t-12.	Kristin Coleman	79
t-34.	Taylor Doyle	80

TOP FIVE INDIVIDUALS

Rk.	Team	Score
t-1.	Deborad DeVilla, Texas Tech	71
t-1.	Chirapat Jao-Janavil, Oklahoma	71
t-1.	Hannah Lovelock, Missouri	71
t-1.	Madison Pressel, Texas	71
t-1.	Katerina Ruzickova, Texas A&M	71

TEAM SCORES

Rk.	Team	Score
1.	Texas Tech	294
2.	Texas	296
t-3.	Missouri	297
t-3.	Nebraska	297
t-5.	Oklahoma	298
t-5.	Texas A&M	298
7.	Iowa State	300
8.	Baylor	301
t-9.	Colorado	302
t-9.	Kansas	302
t-9.	Oklahoma State	302
12.	Kansas State	309