Buffs In 15th At Stanford After Shaking Off Rust, Rain Drops

STANFORD, Calif. – Freshman Kirsty Hodgkins shot a 1-under 70 and sits just three strokes out of the lead, but was the only Colorado golfer in the upper half of the field in the first round of a rain-soaked Stanford Intercollegiate Friday at the Stanford Golf Course.

Colorado, shaking off the rust of a three-week break, shot a 20-over 304 in the first round, putting the Buffaloes in 15^th place in an impressive 18-team field which includes 13 teams in the top 50 of GolfStat's early fall national rankings.

WHAT HAPPENED: The No. 38 ranked Buffaloes, who began the round on the No. 10 tee, struggled with some big numbers on the back nine. A steady rain throughout the day made the par 71 course play longer than its true distance of 6,130 yards.

Collectively, Colorado carded seven holes of double or triple bogey. Two holes in particular seemed to sting the Buffaloes. Colorado's four scorers played the 386-yard par 4 No. 13 at 6-over while the 347-yard par 4 No. 15 played at 4-over for the Buffaloes five golfers, although just 1-over for the four who scored.

Overall the course's nine par 4's were not kind to Colorado as the Buffaloes finished last in the field for round one at 33-over; an average score of 4.73.

TOURNAMENT FIELD: No. 17 Northwestern shot a 1-over 285 for the first round lead, two strokes better than No. 8 UCLA. Only six teams fared better than 10-over on the day, with four of those teams ranked in the nation's top eight.

Colorado's 20-over par was one behind No. 31 San Diego State and two behind Washington, No. 37 Pepperdine and No. 16 Oklahoma State. The Buffaloes are only four strokes out of the top 10 heading into Saturday.

KIRSTY HODGKINS (70, -1): Hodgkins logged a personal collegiate best 70 to lead the Buffaloes, tying for fourth in round one and three shots behind the leader, Georgia Lacey of San Diego State. Hodgkins had four birdies on the day, putting three together in a five-hole stretch from the 17^th through the 3^rd, that put her at 3-under and for a time alone in second place. She made a double-bogey 6 on the 385-yard No. 6 to drop back down to 1-under, but parred her final three holes to keep a share of fourth after 18 holes.

ESTHER LEE (76, +5): Playing her first competitive round in a month, the nation's top ranked golfer had to shake off some early rust, and stands in a 10-way tie for 50^th. Lee was even through her first three, but then carded a triple bogey 7 on the 13^th. Like a true All-American however, she rebounded immediately by logging par on the 163-yard 14^th and a birdie on the second longest hole of the course, the 490-yard par 5 16^th.

BRITTANY FAN (79, +8): Fan joined teammate Gillian Vance as one of five golfers sitting in 72^nd place after shooting an 8-over 79. She carded bogeys on two of her first four holes before playing the next six holes at even par. Fan logged her lone birdie of the round on the 495-yard par 5 No. 1; her 10^th hole of the day. She made par on her final three holes to keep her round in the 70's.

GILLIAN VANCE (79, +8): Vance tied with five others, including Fan, for 72^nd place with an 8-over 79. She was second for the Buffs through their first nine holes, shooting the back side at 2-over. Vance birdied the 473-yard par 5 No. 12, her third hole, and stayed at even par until a double bogey on the par 4 No. 18. She played the front nine at 6-over including a string of five straight bogeys from holes 2-6.

ROBYN CHOI (84, +13): In just her second collegiate tournament, Choi is tied for 86^th after the first round with a 13-over 84. Choi was 1-over after the first four holes, including a birdie on the par 5 12^th, but got into trouble heading into the clubhouse. She shot 8-over on the next five holes before making the turn to the front nine. Choi rebounded to make par on six of the nine holes on the front.

TOP INDIVIDUALS: Lacey had the low round of the day with a 4-under 67. She had four birdies on her first nine holes to jump into the lead and held steady for the rest of the round. Lacey takes a two-shot lead over UCLA's Bethany Wu and Northwestern's Hannah Kim into Saturday's second round. Hodgkins is three strokes back along with Stephanie Lau of Northwestern, Robynn Ree of USC and Bronte Law of UCLA.

NOTEWORTHY: Hodgkins' 70 is Colorado's fourth lowest single round score of the fall season and the team's seventh under par round. She now has three sub-par rounds this fall, tying Lee for the team lead. Fan has the other, a 1-under 71 in the season opening Dick McGuire Invitational. Hodgkins played the par 3's at 2-under, tied for the tournament lead. While the Buffaloes struggled on par 4's, they played the par 5's at 5-under, tied for the fourth best in the field. Colorado is playing on a par 71 course for the first time this season and just the third time in the last 14 tournaments. Of the 14 teams ahead of Colorado after round one, 11 are ranked higher than the Buffaloes. Only No. 47 California and unranked Iowa State and Washington shot lower scores Friday. Colorado was one stroke better than No. 28 San Jose State.

QUOTABLE: Head coach Anne Kelly: "We were a little rusty; it was a long break in between tournaments and it was apparent by the way we played today. But it's a good experience for our younger players to learn how to handle these conditions."

ON HODGKINS: "Kirsty did a fantastic job; it's the first time she's seen rain like this. She played solid golf; a great job of keeping it simple and making the course play as easy as possible. She had a couple holes where she missed with her driver, but recovered to get up and down. She would make a bogey but then come back with a good birdie opportunity."

ON THE CONDITIONS: "It was a constant rain, which made the course play much longer than it normally does. But it's a good experience, we need to do a better job of handling difficult situations like this."

ON ESTHER LEE: "Esther didn't have a good ball striking day. She got it going towards the end, she fought hard, but had a tough day. Everyone is going to have one of those."

ON HANDLING THE WEATHER: "Try to make the course as easy as possible. Sometime a bogey is OK, you move onto the next hole. But the doubles and triples are hard to recover from."

ON THE FIELD: "It's a great field, and great for our younger players. This is the level we want to be at so we've got to learn to play with these teams. I honestly feel we're as competitive, we just had an off day. We're getting more and more experience, and I'm glad we have two tournaments here (in the next two weeks) back-to-back."

NEXT UP: Colorado will pair up with Washington and San Diego State Saturday in the second round of the 54-hole tournament. The Buffaloes will begin off the No. 10 tee for the second straight day and will tee off at 10:15 a.m. MT. Hodgkins will face off with SDSU's Lacey, the first round leader, and Washington's Wenyung Keh.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
T4.	Kirsty Hodgkins	70
T50.	Esther Lee	76
T72.	Gillian Vance	79
T72.	Brittany Fan	79
T86.	Robyn Choi	84
TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
1.	Georgia Lacey, San Diego State	67
T2.	Hannah Kim, Northwestern	69
T2.	Bethany Wu, UCLS	69
T4.	Kirsty Hodgkins, Colorado	70
T4.	Robynn Ree, USC	70
T4	Stephanie Lau, Northwestern	70
T4.	Bronte Law, UCLA	70
TEAM SCORES
Rank	Team	Score
1.	Northwestern	285
2.	UCLA	287
3.	Arizona State	291
T4.	Stanford	292
T4.	USC	292
6.	Georgia	293
7.	California	294
8.	Florida	297
9.	Iowa State	298
10.	Stanford (B)	300
T11.	Pepperdine	302
T11.	Oklahoma State	302
T11.	Washington	302
14.	San Diego State	303
15.	Colorado	304
16.	San Jose State	305
17.	UC Davis	309
18.	San Francisco	312

Buffs In 15th At Stanford After Shaking Off Rust, Rain Drops

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Players Mentioned

Robyn Choi

Brittany Fan

Kirsty Hodgkins

Esther Lee

Gillian Vance