Buffs Tied for Seventh At Pac-12

KAILUA KONA, Hawai'i — The Colorado women's golf team is tied for seventh with Oregon State after the first round of the Pac-12 Preview as both finished the day with a 7-over 299 on Monday.

"I'm a little disappointed because I thought we were playing better today and then we just had some rough holes that really hurt us," head coach Anne Kelly said. "We're coming off of five days of snow and almost three weeks without playing a tournament so we were a little rusty today I think."

No. 8 Arizona is the leader as the Wildcats finished 10-under (282). They have a four-stroke lead over No. 22 UCLA (285), which is tied for second. No. 15 Oregon (287) and No. 5 Southern California (290) are third and fourth, respectively, while No. 1 Stanford (294) rounded out the top five. The Buffs and OSU are only four strokes behind sixth-place Arizona State (295).

"The leaders are well under par, but I think if we can play some solid rounds, it'll be kind of fun to see if we can move up a bit," Kelly said.

Redshirt sophomore Alisha Lau leads the Buffs after the first day as she is tied for seventh with a 2-under 71. She got off to a great start, making four consecutive pars, before sinking three straight birdies to put her at 3-under. After making another par, Lau tallied her first bogey on the 379-yard par 4 No. 2. She rebounded with three pars and one birdie during the following four holes but ended up shooting another bogey, this time on No. 7. Lau finished her round with four straight pars and was the only Buff to shoot under-par on the day.

A pair of Buffs, senior Kirsty Hodgkins and sophomore Malak Bouraeda, are tied for 31st after shooting 75 (2-over). Hodgkins made par on the first three holes before stumbling on No. 14 where she would double bogey. She bounced back with another par and during the following three holes, recorded two birdies and another par to bring her score back to even. Hodgkins played fairly steady the rest of the round, making par on eight of the next 10 holes; the other two were bogeys.

Bouraeda started her round making par, sinking a birdie and recording a bogey. She played pretty steady and in the following five holes, she made two more pars, two birdies and another bogey. At that point, she was 1-under and stayed there the following three holes before recording her third bogey of the round, putting her back at even. Bouraeda finished the round with four more pars and another two bogeys.

"I'm really proud of Alisha and the way she played," Kelly said. "She's really turning into just a strong, solid player for us. Malak played pretty well; she just missed a few makeable putts. Again, I kind of attribute that to a little bit of rust from having a big break between tournaments and also having to deal with the weather last week. Kirsty also played well, she just had a rough start on number 14. It was a rough one for her. But she played pretty solid too."

Freshman Issy Simpson was fourth for the Buffs after shooting a 5-over 78 at her first Pac-12 Preview. During the day, she made three birdies, 10 pars, three bogeys, one double and a triple. She is tied for 47^th overall.

Also playing for CU was junior Elle Otten, who is tied for 55th. She recorded an 8-over 81 on the first day and was the only Buff to sink an eagle. She also recorded two birdies, seven pars, five bogeys, two double and one triple.

"I think we'll be better the next two days," Kelly said. "Getting a good, solid practice round and a round underneath our belts, so we'll see what happens, but I know Issy and Elle fought their way through the round as hard as they could, they just had some rough roles, which hurt. I know they're disappointed and they'll come back fighting strong tomorrow."

Oregon's Amy Matsuoka and Arizona's Therese Warner lead the field after the first 18 holes as both shot a 5-under 68.

The second round of the tournament is set for Tuesday, November 5, and will continue at the 6,429-yard par 73 Nanea Golf Club.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
T7.	Alisha Lau	71
T31.	Malak Bouraeda	75
T31.	Kirsty Hodgkins	75
T47.	Issy Simpson	78
T55.	Elle Otten	81

TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
T1.	Amy Matsuoka, Oregon	68
T1.	Therese Warner, Arizona	68
3.	Emma Spitz, UCLA	69
T4.	Allison Corpuz, Southern California	70
T4.	Ellie Slama, Oregon State	70
T4.	Rino Sasaki, Washington	70

TEAM SCORES
Rank	Team	Score
1.	Arizona	282
2.	UCLA	285
3.	Oregon	287
4.	Southern California	290
5.	Stanford	294
6.	Arizona State	295
T7.	Colorado	299
T7.	Oregon State	299
T8.	California	300
T8.	Washington	300
11.	Washington State	303
12.	Hawai'i	316

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Players Mentioned

Malak Bouraeda

Kirsty Hodgkins

Alisha Lau

Elle Otten

Issy Simpson