BOZEMAN — Once determined to someday play volleyball for hometown Washington State University, fate set Lauren Greeny on a much different path early in high school.
She tore her meniscus in the fall of her freshman year and that spring opted to try her hand at a sport she had never played before — golf.
"I didn't love it at first," conceded Greeny, whose mother Jen was the head volleyball coach at WSU and now leads the program at West Virginia. "I was just mad I couldn't play volleyball."
Flash forward to today, and it's pretty clear she and the game of golf now get along just fine.
After winning her second consecutive women's State Am tournament this past summer, the Montana State junior went on to make program history last month at the Eagle Invitational in Worley, Idaho. Greeny shot a 6-under 66 on the final day, the lowest single round ever carded by a Bobcat.
She had tied the previous program best of 67 four times. And on the back nine at Circling Raven Golf Club — a course located just about an hour north of her hometown of Pullman, Washington, that she frequently played in high school — she was absolutely crunching the numbers as she closed in on the 18th hole.
"Oh yeah," said Greeny with a laugh when asked if she was keeping track. "I was like, 'I better birdie this last hole, well second to last hole. It was a par 5. I drove the green but then three-putted. But I still got the 66 so it was good."
That stellar final round also propelled Greeny to her first collegiate tournament win as she become the 11th golfer in program history to collect an individual tournament victory.
"I didn't know I had won until 30 minutes after we finished," she said. "Coach (Brittany Basye) was like, 'Okay, you won,' and my team was all there and I was on the phone with my dad. He was tearing up and I was tearing up and it was a great feeling."
It was four years ago at Circling Raven where Greeny and Basye, now in her 21st season coaching the Bobcats, were acquainted and Greeny was soon after set on playing for Montana State.
"Greeny was playing with her dad in the group ahead," recalled Basye. "It was setup that way so I could be behind her. And I had the range finder and I was like, 'I want her on my team.' She had that look about her, had that confidence, walked with a little bit of swagger.
"(Circling Raven) is where I first saw her so what a special thing for that to be the course where gets her first win at."
Perhaps its because she picked up the game of golf later in life, but Montana State was the only collegiate program to offer Greeny a spot on its roster. But after making some program history and with the Bobcats now set to close out their fall season at the Portland State Invitational next week, it would be difficult for he to imagine herself anywhere else.
"This opportunity that Montana State has given me has been everything I could have dreamed of," she said.
