By BRETT WRIGHT

The Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown was no walk in the park for any one team — the women’s golf tournament featured 13 ranked teams out of the 18 team playing field.

On top of that, wind gusts up to 30 mph did not make it any easier on the players.  

Unfortunately for BYU, players had a difficult tournament and finished 17th overall at +64. The 17th place finish was the worst ranking for the golf team this season. However, each player had something positive to take out of the tournament with them.

Maggie Yuan has been consistent for the Cougars this year and led the team this tournament by shooting +11, tied for 32nd in player rankings. She did well in her first round of play, shooting 1 under par with four consecutive birdies on the front nine. Jade Bollinger came in second on the team at +16 as she had the best-second round score for the Cougars at 4 over par.

The remaining Cougars who competed in this tournament were Kelsey Vines (+19), Shayla Forsey (+21) and Amanda Keith (+24). Vines had the second best score for the Cougars at +5 in the second round behind Bollinger. Forsey had four consecutive birdies in the third round on the front nine and finished the round at +6. Keith had a great first and third round but struggled in the second round, hurting her score.

No. 17 Arizona walked away with a pair of trophies as it won the tournament with a score of +14, five strokes better than second place Florida. Arizona’s Sherlyn Popelka had the best individual score amongst the field at -7.  

The Cougar’s Jenteal Jackson golfed independently and shot a +20.

The team has much to look forward to in its next tournament as they hit the road to compete in the Turtle Bay Collegiate Invitational on Nov. 3-4 in Hawaii.