Women’s golf teams ends fall season with seventh-place finish

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The BYU women’s golf team finished in seventh place out of eight teams in the Rainbow Wahine Invitational on Oct. 31, with senior Selu Fotu finishing the tournament with her highest ranking ever.

The winner of the tournament was Sacramento State with 38-over-par. Hawaii and New Mexico State tied for second with 39-over-par. Notable competitor Utah Valley University finished right behind the Cougars with 67-over-par.

Sophomore Lea Garner follows through with her swing during an early season invitational. Photo courtesy BYU Athletics
Sophomore Lea Garner follows through with her swing during an early season invitational. (Photo courtesy BYU Athletics)

At the end of the first round, Sophomore Lea Garner led the pack with one-over-par but dropped to an 11th-place tie by the end of the tournament with 10-over-par. Fotu started the tournament in a ninth-place ranking, but by day two she was tied for second.

“We started okay, but it wasn’t a very good finish,” said coach Carrie Roberts. “We can work a lot on ball striking and putting during the off season before starting up again in the spring.”

The Cougars registered a 65-over-par finish in the three-day tournament with 929 strokes total. Fotu’s second-round finish of 71, one-under-par, was the team best during the Rainbow Wahine Invitational.

Both Garner and Fotu finished strong with three birdies each in the final round of the tournament; Fotu holed 10 birdies total in the Aloha State.

“Lea and Selu both played well and had a good finish to help the team,” Roberts said.

After the second round of the tournament, Roberts was hopeful that the Cougars could finish strong in their final stint of the season.

“We got nine shots better, and it’s always good to do better each round,” Roberts said. “I thought we made less mistakes, and I was happy that we made better decisions.”

Annie Yang finished in 39th place with 25-over-par, and Annika Afoa Kahaiali’i and Carly Oldroyd tied for 41st place with 28-over-par.

Individual participants Brooklyn Anderson and Gabby Gregory finished in 44th place and 49th place, respectively.

The Cougars will have some time off between now and next February, when they tee off at the Matador Invitational in Simi Valley, Calif., for their first tournament in 2014.

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