Buffs Tied For Fifth At Peg Barnard Invitational

STANFORD, Calif. – The University of Colorado women's golf team opened its spring season here on Saturday and with the first of two rounds complete, the Buffaloes are tied for fifth place at the Peg Barnard Invitational.

The Buffs shot 11-over or 295 as a group on the par 71, 6,084-yard Stanford Golf Course, recording six birdies along with 51 pars. Four Pac-12 opponents hold the top four places on the leaderboard with Oregon sitting in first place at 1-over par, 285. Tournament host Stanford is two strokes back in second place, carding a 287 or 3-over par and California is in third, shooting 5-over par. Fourth place belongs to Washington, who is in at plus-7 (291), just four strokes ahead of Colorado and Fresno State.

“We're definitely a little rusty, coming off these early winter months where we weren't able to get out on the course too much, but I think overall, ball striking looked good,” said Colorado head coach Anne Kelly. “Putting was a little off, which that's to be expected. I think tomorrow they'll have their rhythm back with their swing a little bit more and have a better feel for the greens.”

Junior Esther Lee paced the Buffaloes shooting an even-par 71 in the first round and is tied for fifth place on the leaderboard. She had three bogeys on the afternoon, but offset those with three birdies. Lee started from hole 10 and shot par-bogey-birdie over the first three holes. A bogey on No. 15 put her at plus-one, but was able to get back to even-par with a birdie on No. 18 as she made her way to the front side. A bogey on the very next hole once again put her at 1-over, however she finished strong with seven pars and a birdie on her second to last hole of the day.

Sophomore Brittany Fan and senior Alexis Keating both turned in 2-over par, 73 scorecards. Alexis shot even-par on the front side and 2-over on the back, while Fan's day was opposite–posting 2-over on holes one through nine and an even back nine. Keating started the day with three bogeys and a birdie on Nos. 10-18 and then was solid down the stretch, with nine consecutive pars. Fan bogeyed her second hole and followed with a birdie three holes later to bring her back to even-par. She made four straight pars then ran into a little trouble with back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 1 and 2. Fan was able to rebound nicely and finish strong, paring her final seven holes. Alexis and Fan are tied for 14th place.

Freshman Gillian Vance was up and down throughout the day, finishing at 7-over par, 78 and is tied for 38th overall. Vance teed-off from the 10th hole with a bogey to go to 1-over par. After four straight pars, she had trouble closing out the back nine with four straight bogeys. Starting the front side at 5-over, she made a pair of pars, but then bogeyed two of the next three. She drained a birdie on her second to last hole to drop back to 6-over, then finished the round with a bogey.

Freshman Lauryn Keating struggled the entire day as she is working through a “pretty big swing change” Kelly described. Lauryn posted a 15-over par, 86 round, shooting 9-over on the front and 6-over on the back side.

The individual leaderboard is stacked with four players tied for first place at 1-under par and five are tied for fifth place, including Lee at even-par.

The final round of the tournament gets underway at 9 a.m. MT on Sunday. Colorado will play alongside Washington and Fresno State.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
T5.	Esther Lee	71
T14.	Brittany Fan	73
T14.	Alexis Keating	73
T38.	Gillian Vance	78
68.	Lauryn Keating	86
TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
T1.	Casey Danielson, Stanford	70
T1.	Ying Luo, Washington	70
T1.	Caroline Inglis, Oregon	70
T1.	Marcella Pranovia, Oregon	70
T5.	Hannah Suh, California	71
T5.	Marthe Wold, California	71
T5.	Lauren Kim, Stanford	71
T5.	Lauren Gutierrez, New Mexico	71
T5.	Esther Lee, Colorado	71
TEAM SCORES
Rank	Team	Score
1.	Oregon	285
2.	Stanford	287
3.	California	289
4.	Washington	291
T5.	Fresno State	295
T5.	COLORADO	295
7.	New Mexico	296
8.	San Francisco	309
9.	San Jose State	310
10.	Nevada	311
11.	Nebraska	314
12.	Denver	320
13.	UC Davis	322