Women's Golf Finishes Fourth At Wildcat Invite

TUCSON, Ariz.—The No. 23 University of Colorado women's golf team finished its first event of the spring by finishing fourth at the Arizona Wildcat Invitational, held here at the Vistoso Golf Club. The Buffs shot a final round 22-over par 310 to finish 41-over par 905.

Host and No. 22 Arizona cruised to a victory by shooting a 4-over par 292 to finish 13-under par 851 for the event. The Wildcats won the event by 12 strokes, topping No. 1 UCLA, who had the best final round at 3-over par 291 to finish 1-under par 863 through three rounds. No. 8 Arizona State finished third at 20-over par 884 after a final round 9-over par 297.

The Buffs struggled closing out their round but remained ahead of Oregon State, who shot 11-over par 299 and finished three strokes behind the Buffs at 44-over par 908 in fifth place. Otherwise, the Buffs round of 22-over par was tied for the fourth best round in the field despite playing the final four holes at 12-over par as a team.

“We had to have a great day to move up the standings and our goal was to come in and play a solid round,” CU coach Anne Kelly said. “It's disappointing that we didn't do that. You have to learn from days like this and move on. We need to finish strong and not make as many mistakes. If you have a day like this early in the spring, hopefully you can learn from it and it will be beneficial down the stretch.”

Senior Emily Talley led the way for the Buffaloes and shot a final round 2-over par 74 to finish tied for 11th at 4-over par 220. She cost herself a top 10 finish with a double bogey on the 18th hole after she had played the first 17 holes at even par with two birdies and two bogeys to go with her 13 pars.

“Emily is playing pretty well but just had a rough finishing hole,” Kelly said. “She hit it left off the tee box on 18, she had to hit it over the desert and didn't make it and had to drop a ball. Other than that she played really well.”

It marked Talley's second-best finish of the season, behind a fifth-place finish at the Ptarmigan/Ram Fall Classic to open the season. It's her landmark 25th career top 20 finish as she holds the CU career record, last season surpassing Erin Kerr's total of 21 from 2000-03.

“For the tournament, I hit the ball pretty well, I was making great contact and giving myself birdie opportunities,” Talley said. “I just didn't make putts. I had a birdie on one of the toughest holes today. The last hole I just hit one bad shot and then another bad shot and it wasn't great planning on my part.”

Sophomore Alex Stewart continued her solid play with a final round 4-over par 76 to finish tied for 24th at 12-over par 228. After an 80 in the first round, she shot the final 36 holes at 4-over par and did not succumb to the Buffs struggles down the stretch as she closed her round out with six straight pars.

Senior Jessica Wallace shook off an 82 in the second round and finished her final round at 6-over par 78, good for a tie for 44th individually at 20-over par 236. She also struggled into the finish, as she sat at 2-over par through 14 holes and played the final four holes at 4-over par.

“Jess and Alex are close,” Kelly said. “Jess was doing better today and just didn't finish well.”

Sophomore Jenny Coleman had one disastrous hole that led to a final round 11-over par 83 to finish the tournament at 15-over par 231 and tied for 34th individually. She hit the ball into the desert and scored a 10 on the par 4 No. 5 to go 6-over on that hole alone. The other 17 holes she played at 5-over par. She also doubled that hole in the second round, so she played the No. 5 at 8-over par and the other 17 holes combined at 7-over par through the 54-hole event.

“Jenny actually played OK other than that hole,” Kelly said. “She hit it in the desert a couple of times and may have lost the ball – it was a desert disaster. But she's made a lot of improvement on her short game and overall with everybody, I saw good improvement on their wedges. Hopefully we learned a lot.”

Sophomore Kristin Coleman shot a final round 10-over par 82 to finish the event at 19-over par 235 and tied for 34th. She did fall into the late round jinx as she was 4-over par through the first 14 holes and finished the final four at a combined 6-over.

“It's a difficult day to handle,” Kelly said. “Nobody feels great going home. We need to practice harder and do better so we don't have days like this. This team is better than we showed today and that's frustrating. It was a good experience playing with some top ranked teams, but I'm glad we have a quick turnaround and we can get back at it next week.”

The Buffs do indeed have a quick turnaround as they will next play in the 2012 Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, hosted by Ohio State at Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes, Calif., the hometown and course of Jenny and Kristin Coleman. The competition will continue to improve for CU, as the 15-field team consists of three top 10 and seven top 20 teams and each of the teams is ranked in the top 43 nationally.

BUFFALOES INDIVIDUALS
11.	Emily Talley	73-73-74—220
t-24.	Alex Stewart	80-72-76—228
t-34.	Jenny Coleman	72-76-83—231
t-41.	Kristin Coleman	80-73-82—235
t-44.	Jessica Wallace	76-82-78—236

TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
1.	Mannon Gidali, Arizona	67-66-71—204
2.	Margarita Ramos, Arizona	71-68-72—211
3.	Erynne Lee, UCLA	71-72-70—213
4.	Isabelle Bioneau, Arizona	74-70-70—214
t-5.	Ani Gulugian, UCLA	74-70-72—215
t-5.	Lee Lopez, UCLA	70-70-76—216

TEAM STANDINGS
1.	Arizona	285-274-292—851
2.	UCLA	289-283-291—863
3.	Arizona State	291-296-297—884
4.	Colorado	301-294-310—905
5.	Oregon State	307-302-299—908
6.	Denver	301-303-310—914
7.	Stanford	305-299-319—923
8.	New Mexico	300-302-322—924
9.	San Diego State	310-306-311—927
10.	North Texas	310-303-319—932
11.	Washington State	309-316-323—948
12.	New Mexico State	319-324-317—960
13.	Portland State	332-308-333—973
14.	Northern Arizona	318-327-330—975

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Players Mentioned

Jenny Coleman

Kristin Coleman

Alex Stewart

Emily Talley

Jessica Wallace