The BYU men’s golf team finished first and the women’s team placed seventh in a unique format that featured both men’s and women’s golf teams competing together Tuesday at the Weber State/ Utah Golf Challenge in St. George.
Although BYU’s men’s team did not feature their usual full squad, the team they took was able to outshoot the competition and to take the team title with a total of 870. They finished one shot ahead of Weber State and 10 ahead of rival Utah.
Winning the individual title was Utah State’s Todd Tanner, who posted a 13-under par 203 for the tournament, followed by BYU freshman Billy Harvey, who finished second at 212. Rounding off the top four was Utah’s Shawn Edwards and BYU’s Jay Auvigne
The women’s golf team shot a 908 to place them in seventh, only three strokes behind Southern Utah University and seven behind Utah Valley. Individually, BYU’s Catalina Navarro finished at the top for the women’s side, carding a 218 for the tournament and a tie for fifth among the all of the competition, both men and women.
The BYU women had been leading the tournament early on in action, however, due to playing in Hawaii and the strenuous schedule, fatigue soon caught up as they slipped from the top spot. As for the men, BYU had a five-stroke lead after the first round-and-a-half Monday. However, with the strong play of Utah State’s Tanner, who shot a seven-under Tuesday, almost propelled Utah State to a near victory.
Individually for the BYU women, Susanne Gillemo and Jaime Stevensen tied for 14, along with Utah State’s Mitch Harris and Casey Beck and SUU’s Justin Barlow, at 224. BYU’s Shawn Jepson, Ollie Nissinen and Paul Walker finished 226, 231 and 238 respectively.
As for the remaining BYU women, Frederika Schlasberg, Marilyn Gibbs and Nicole Parry posted scores of 249, 251 and 252 respectively. As for the good showing and fun format that this tourney entailed Coach Bruce Brockbank said, “This was a nice event. I was proud of these guys for coming down here and playing well.”
For the scoring in this tournament, the top four scores counted for the overall team total. The tournament was held at the Sunbrook Golf Course. The men played on the 10,202-yard course while the women played on the 8,979-yard course. As for both the BYU men’s and women’s golf teams, play for the rest of the fall is complete until they return to action in 1998.
