By Brock Bergeson
After 36 holes of golf, the BYU women?s golf team took sixth place after facing some tough competition at the Spartan Invitational in San Jose, Calif.
“I think the golf course is quite fair,” head coach Sue Nyhus said in a news release. “It has a reasonable length. Good shots are rewarded while bad shots are punished. The bunkers are visually intimidating because you have to knock it over them to reach the green. We need to make some strategic adjustments for tomorrow.”
Sophomore, Rachel Newren, from Salt Lake City, shot a 2-over-par 73 in both rounds of play to end up in 10th place for the tournament.
Nyhus said her team was doing fine after the first two rounds of play, which were held Tuesday.
As a team, the Cougars are ranked 41st in the nation and are currently sitting in sixth place in a field of 15 teams that includes two Top 5 teams. UCLA, ranked second in the nation, finished 25 shots in front of BYU on the first day of the tournament.
?If the whole team plays well, we will move up in the standings,? Nyhus said.
Alexis Edwards and Danielle von Arnim both finished the day 10-over-par and tied for 29th place. Juli Wightman and Natalie Newren rounded out the Cougar lineup as Wightman shot 12-over-par 154 and Newren shot 18-over-par 160.
?We [the team] could be playing better, and they could be playing worse,? Nyhus said.
After a two-week break, the Cougars didn?t have to worry about playing in the mud or have wind blowing in their face this time around, and Nyhus said BYU?s playing conditions have been good.
The Cougars played the last round of the tournament Wednesday. Nyhus said she hoped the team would move up in the standings, so that they could get a better ranking to end the day. BYU will head to Las Vegas next week for the UNLV Spring Tournament.
