Colorado
NCAA St. George Regional
Women's Golf Tied For 14th After First Round At NCAA Regionals
May 07, 2015 | Women's Golf
ST. GEORGE, Utah – The University of Colorado women's golf team fought tough, windy conditions here Thursday and is tied for 14th after the opening round of the NCAA Regional Championships at the Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club.
“It was a tough day,” said Colorado head coach Anne Kelly. “It was blowing pretty hard and unfortunately we didn't handle the windy conditions too well. Hopefully we'll try to get our feet under us and be ready for tomorrow.”
The 36th-ranked Buffaloes shot 32-over par (316) as a team and share the 14th spot with Miami. The tournament field is comprised of 18 teams and not one posted a subpar round on the par 71, 6,255 yard course layout while only one individual shot under-par.
“The greens dried out, they were very firm and played fast,” Kelly added. “There were some tough hole locations and we just didn't handle the conditions well. They're good players, they're a good team, we had a rough day, but the fact is we have to go play really hard these next two days and see what we can do. I think this team is very capable of it.”
Three schools from the Pac-12 Conference finished the round in the top five. No. 1 ranked Southern California leads the tournament at 9-over par (293), four strokes ahead of California, who is in second at 13-over par (297). UNLV is in third, four shots behind Cal with a 17-over par 301 scorecard. Wisconsin (+19) holds the fourth spot on the leaderboard and Stanford is one stroke back of the Badgers at 20-over par (304) in fifth place.
Sophomore Esther Lee paced the Buffs in the opening round, shooting 5-over par (76), which has her tied for 26th after the first day. She opened with bogeys on the first and third hole to go 2-over, but found her groove over the next 10 holes, shooting 1-under, recording one birdie and nine pars. The final five-hole stretch was where Lee ran into some trouble. She had a bogey on No. 14, a double-bogey on No. 16 and then a bogey on the last hole.
Playing in her first NCAA Regionals, freshman Brittany Fan shot a 78 or 7-over par and sits tied for 39th in the standings. Fan had the best start for the Buffs, birdying the first hole and paring Nos. 2-4. She dropped back to even-par on the fifth hole with a bogey and wrapped up the front side at 2-over going par-bogey-bogey-par. Over the next seven holes, Fan shot 2-over with two bogeys and five pars. A double-bogey and bogey on Nos. 17 and 18, added three more strokes to her score.
Junior Alexis Keating is in at 10-over par (81) through her first 18 holes of the meet. She had a rough start with a double-bogey on her first hole and followed with four bogeys over the next seven holes to go 6-over par. When she arrived to No. 9, Keating started to settle down, paring five of six. She went to 8-over with a bogey on the 15th hole and then shot even-par on the next two holes. A double-bogey on her final hole pushed her to plus-10 for the day. Keating is tied for 69th place.
Sophomore Natalie Vivaldi also carded an 81 and is tied for 69th overall. Similar to Keating, she struggled out of the gate shooting 5-over after three, but rebounded nicely to close out the front side, shooting 1-under par through the remaining six holes and posted a 4-over 39. She had five pars and one birdie. Vivaldi went 6-over par on the final nine holes. She was 8-over par with two to play, but then had back-to-back bogeys to finish the round.
Junior Jamie Oleksiew finished the first round at 15-over par (86) and is tied for 92nd overall. She was 1-over after three holes and then was up and down throughout the rest of the afternoon. Oleksiew finished the front nine at 7-over par, where she shot 6-over on the last six holes before making the turn. The back side proved to be just as challenging for the Vancouver, British Columbia native. She completed the final nine holes at 8-over par.
Cal's Pauline Loulier is in first after posting the only subpar round. She is 3-under and has a three stroke lead over Alivia Brown from Washington State and Karen Chung of Southern California as both carded an even-par 71. Five golfers are tied for fourth at 1-over par.
The NCAA Regional Championships continue on Friday with the second round beginning at 8 a.m. MDT. CU tees-off at 8:54 a.m. from No. 10 and is paired with Denver and Miami.
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BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS |
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|
T26. |
76 |
|
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T39. |
78 |
|
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T69. |
81 |
|
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T69. |
81 |
|
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T92. |
86 |
|
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TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS |
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1. |
Pauline Loulier, California |
68 |
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T2. |
Alivia Brown, Washington State |
71 |
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T2. |
Karen Chung, Southern California |
71 |
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T4. |
Meghan MacLaren, Florida International |
72 |
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T4. |
Casey Danielson, Stanford |
72 |
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T4. |
Dana Finkelstein, UNLV |
72 |
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T4. |
Brooke Ferrell, Wisconsin |
72 |
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T4. |
Annie Park, Southern California |
72 |
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TEAM SCORES |
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1. |
Southern California |
293 |
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2. |
California |
297 |
|
3. |
UNLV |
301 |
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4. |
Wisconsin |
303 |
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5. |
Stanford |
304 |
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6. |
New Mexico State |
305 |
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7. |
Arkansas |
306 |
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T8. |
Virginia |
308 |
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T8. |
Southern Methodist |
308 |
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T10. |
Texas Christian |
313 |
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T10. |
Middle Tennessee |
313 |
|
T12. |
San Diego State |
315 |
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T12. |
Denver |
315 |
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T14. |
COLORADO |
316 |
|
T14. |
Miami |
316 |
|
16. |
Northern Arizona |
317 |
|
17. |
Vanderbilt |
319 |
|
18. |
Albany |
331 |
Players Mentioned
