Colorado
Pac-12 Championships
Women's Golf Opens In Eighth At Pac-12 Championships
April 20, 2015 | Women's Golf
BOULDER – The University of Colorado women's golf team is in eighth after shooting 296 here in the first round of the Pac-12 Championships at the Boulder Country Club.
The championship field features some fierce competition with nine of the 11 teams ranked in the top 40 of the latest Golfstat poll (4/15). The 39th-ranked Buffaloes, anchored by junior Alexis Keating are 12-over par, just four strokes out the top five and 12 behind the leader. The 28th-ranked Oregon Ducks sit at the top of the leaderboard after round one, shooting an even-par, 284. No. 16 Stanford is two shots off the lead at 2-over par and UCLA, ranked third in the nation is one shot back of the Cardinal in third place. Shooting 5-over par is Washington, who is in fourth and Arizona rounds out the top five with an 8-over par 292 in the opening round.
“We're a little disappointed,” said Colorado head coach Anne Kelly. “We had pretty high expectations coming out today, but we still have two more rounds of golf. A few players got off to somewhat of a shaky start, but they seemed to settle back in. I feel confident that we will continue to improve tomorrow.”
Junior Alexis Keating paced the Buffs here today, shooting a 1-over par, 72. She drained three birdies on her way to carding a 35 on the front nine and 37 on the back. Keating had a solid start, opening with two straight pars. She bogeyed No. 3 to go 1-over, but followed it up with a birdie to drop back to even then pared the next five holes before making the turn. On the backside, she made a pair of birdies and had three bogeys. She was one hole away from finishing at even-par, but shot a five on the par 4, 18th to finish at 1-over. Keating is tied for 12th heading into the second round.
“She played solid and she's been hitting the ball really well all semester,” Kelly said about Keating's performance. “She got that putter rolling and she just played a solid round of golf. The course is playing tough with the breeze coming in and the greens are fast and firm, which that's how it should be for a championship, but she played really well.”
Freshman Brittany Fan is in at 2-over par with a 73 and tied for 21st overall. The Pearl City, Hawaii native had a tough start, shooting 3-over through her first nine holes. Fan had back-to-back bogeys on the first two holes and again on Nos. 8 and 9. She settled down nicely on the back nine, carding a 1-under par, 35 with eight pars and one birdie.
Sophomore Natalie Vivaldi closed the first round with a 75 or 4-over par. Similar to Fan, she also was challenged on the front nine with three bogeys, posting a 3-over 38. Vivaldi found a better groove on the back nine and was two strokes better with a 1-over par 37. She had two bogeys, but also had a birdie to along with six pars. Vivaldi is tied for 33rd place.
Playing in her first Pac-12 Championships, sophomore Esther Lee struggled on the par 71, 6,407-yard course format. She posted a 76 or 5-over and is tied for 37th overall. After a difficult first few holes, going 4-over through six, Lee seemed to get a bit more comfortable with the course as the day went on. She shot 1-over the rest of the way, including a birdie and two straight pars on the last three holes.
Junior Jamie Oleksiew turned in a round of 79 or 8-over par. The Vancouver, British Columbia native had a 40 on the front nine, but again, similar to her teammates, followed it up with a better performance on the back nine. She birdied No. 9 to get to 4-over then ran into some trouble on the next three holes with two bogeys and a double-bogey to put her at plus-8. From that point forward she had a solid finish with five consecutive pars.
Oregon's Caroline Inglis is in first place with a 67 and has a two-stroke lead over Noemi Jimenez from Arizona State, who shot a 2-under par 69. There are six players tied for third, each at 1-under par. The group includes two players from Stanford and three from UCLA.
“We have to stay focused on one shot at a time and take it a day at a time,” Kelly said. “Learn from what we did wrong today and also look at what we did well.”
The second round gets underway on Tuesday with the first group set to tee-off at 10 a.m. MT. Colorado will play alongside Oregon State.
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BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS |
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|
Rank |
Team |
Score |
|
T12. |
72 |
|
|
T21. |
73 |
|
|
T33. |
75 |
|
|
T37. |
76 |
|
|
T49. |
79 |
|
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TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS |
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|
Rank |
Team |
Score |
|
1. |
Caroline Inglis, Oregon |
67 |
|
2. |
Noemi Jimenez, Arizona State |
69 |
|
T3. |
Casey Danielson, Stanford |
70 |
|
T3. |
Mariah Stackhouse, Stanford |
70 |
|
T3. |
Bronte Law, UCLA |
70 |
|
T3. |
Louise Ridderstrom, UCLA |
70 |
|
T3. |
Erynne Lee, UCLA |
70 |
|
T3. |
Anica Yoo, Oregon State |
70 |
|
TEAM SCORES |
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|
Rank |
Team |
Score |
|
1. |
Oregon |
284 |
|
2. |
Stanford |
286 |
|
3. |
UCLA |
287 |
|
4. |
Washington |
289 |
|
5. |
Arizona |
292 |
|
6. |
Southern California |
293 |
|
7. |
Oregon State |
294 |
|
8. |
COLORADO |
296 |
|
9. |
California |
297 |
|
10. |
Washington State |
299 |
|
11. |
Arizona State |
304 |
Players Mentioned
