Buffs In Ninth At Pac-12 Championship

Monday, April 15

Palos Verdes Estates, CA

All Day

Colorado

Pac-12 Championships

Junior Kirsty Hodgkins leads the Buffs after the first round of the Pac-12 Championship

Photo by: John McGillen

April 15, 2019 | Women's Golf

Team Results Individual Results

By: Linda Sprouse, Associate SID

PALOS VERDES, Calif. — The University of Colorado women's golf team is currently ninth after the first day of the Pac-12 Championship. The Buffaloes shot a 25-over 309 during the first round on Monday at the Palos Verdes Golf Club.

"Overall we struggled with the greens today," head coach Anne Kelly said. "It's a very tough course with fast firm greens. Our touch needs to get a little better tomorrow around the greens. We need to eliminate the double bogeys, stay patient tomorrow and see if we can climb up the leaderboard the next two days."

Top-ranked Southern California recorded a 1-under 283 to lead the field after the first round. The Trojans had a pair of athletes shoot 1-under 70s, one an even 71 and the other scorer finished with a 1-over 72. USC has a six-stroke lead over Stanford, which is second with 5-over 289. Arizona is third (290), Oregon is fourth (292) and Arizona State and UCLA are tied for fifth (293).

Junior Kirsty Hodgkins, who is tied for 25th, led the Buffs the first day. She recorded a 4-over 75. She had a great start, making six straight pars before recording a double bogey on the par-5 No. 16. She followed that up by making par on No. 17 and shot a bogey on No. 18, putting her at 4-over through her first nine. She played a very consistent round on the next nine, recording six pars, one birdie and a pair of bogeys. Hodgkins finished the 6,131 yard, par 71 course with 13 pars, one birdie, three bogeys and one double.

Senior Gillian Vance ended the day at 6-over, shooting a 77 and is tied for 36th. She was 3-over through the back nine, which included four pars, one birdie and four bogeys, and scored the exact same shots on the front nine for another 3-over. It was a nice turnaround for her as she shot an 83 in her first round of play a week ago at the Silverado Showdown.

Freshman Malak Bouraeda is tied for 40th after recording a 7-over 78. Like Hodgkins and Vance, she shot a 3-over in the back nine, collecting one birdie, four pars and four bogeys. She played fairly steady on the front nine, starting with making par on the first hole. She stumbled a bit on the par-3 No. 2 with her only double of the day and bounced back to make two consecutive pars. The round finished with two more bogeys and three pars.

Freshman Kelsey Wester shot an 8-over 79 in the first round. She had a nice start to her round and was only 2-over after the back nine with one birdie, five pars and three bogeys. But after a decent start to the front nine, she faltered a bit. Webster made par on her first two holes, but then recorded a bogey and two doubles on the following three holes, which put her at 7-over. She was able to collect herself and made par on the next three holes and finished the round with a bogey. She is currently tied for 44^th.

Sophomore Elle Otten had tough day despite a decent start on the back nine. Through the first seven holes, she was 2-over after she made four pars, one birdie, one bogey and one double. She added another two bogeys to finish the back nine at 4-over, but the front nine was another story. She made par on No. 1, but only recorded par one more time in the next eight holes with four bogeys and three doubles, finishing 14-over 85 for the round, which is 54th overall.

The individual leader after the first round is Stanford's Albane Valenzuela. She recorded a 6-under 65 with six birdies and 12 pars. She has a four-stroke lead over Arizona State's Olivia Mehaffey and Washington State's Amy Chu, who both earned a 2-under 69. In total, there are eight athletes who finished the day either even or under par.

The second round will being at 8:30 a.m. PT Tuesday, April 16.

NOTES: This is the first Pac-12 Championship for freshman Malak Bouraeda and Kelsey Webster, as well as sophomore Elle Otten…Every Buff recorded at least one birdie during the round…Hodgkins recorded 13 pars in the first round, which is tied for the seventh most on the day.

BUFFALO INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
T25.	Kirsty Hodgkins	75
T37.	Gillian Vance	77
T41. T45. 55.	Malak Bouraeda Kelsey Webster Elle Otten	78 79 85


TOP 5 INDIVIDUALS
Rank	Name	Score
1.	Albane Valenzuela, Stanford	65
T2.	Olivia Mehaffey, Arizona State	69
T2.	Amy Chu, Washington State	69
T4.	Gabriela Ruffels, USC	70
T4.	Alyaa Abdulghany, USC	70

TEAM SCORES
Rank	Team	Score
1.	Southern California	283
2.	Stanford	289
3.	Arizona	290
4.	Oregon	292
T5.	Arizona State	293
T5.	UCLA	293
7.	Washington State	298
8.	Washington	302
9.	Colorado	309
10.	California	311
11.	Oregon State	314