(Editor’s note: University of Montana athletics release)
ST. GEORGE, Utah — The Montana women’s golf team, which shot a 325 on Thursday as the Lady Thunderbird Invitational opened at the Sunbrook Golf Club in St. George, Utah, shot a 310 on Friday to move up to 10th in the final standings at the 14-team tournament.
The Grizzlies started the day tied for 11th and moved clear of North Dakota and Lehigh to finish in the top 10.
“We stayed at the course another three hours after yesterday’s round just to be able to play on grass and be in the sun. That was helpful,” said coach Kris Nord.
“We still didn’t putt very well, but we hit the ball a lot better today. If we’d putted better, we would have had a great round.”
Four of Montana’s five golfers shot improved scores on Friday, with Teigan Avery (87-77–164) cutting 10 strokes, Allison Sobol (85-78–163) seven, Baylee Barckley (79-75–154) four and Kylie Esh (81-80–161) one. Brooklyn Van Bebber (80-82–162) followed her 80 on Thursday with an 82.
Barckley tied for 24th in the individual standings.
Cal Baptist (292-297–589) held its day-one lead to win the tournament by nine strokes over Southern Utah (297-301–598) and 11 over South Dakota State (304-296–600).
Xavier (295-306–601) and Oral Roberts (298-304–602) rounded out the top five.
North Dakota State’s Taylor McCorkle (76-65–141), tied for 18th after Thursday’s round, shot a 7-under 65 on Friday to move all way up the leaderboard and into first place. She finished two strokes clear of Southern Utah’s Chanikan Yongyuan (71-72–143).
Montana will compete again later next week at the Red Rocks Invitational at Sedona, Ariz.
“Only having a week off before we’re back at Sedona will really help,” said Nord. “That’s what we need. It definitely showed that we had a month off without playing on grass or in a tournament, but half the teams here could say the same thing.”
