After a winter hiatus from competition, the Seattle Pacific women’s golf team sets off on another inaugural competition run.
Seattle Pacific women’s golf began its first spring season at the LA Spring Invite in Los Angeles, California, at the Rio Hondo Golf Club on Monday, Feb. 3, and Tuesday, Feb. 4.
Five of the team’s seven golfers competed in the tournament: freshman Anika Schau, sophomore Zoe Garcia, junior Brigitte Fenton, sophomore Sophie Stamatis and sophomore Hannah Hochsprung.
The event hosted 15 teams alongside SPU: California State University Los Angeles, California State University San Marcos, California State University East Bay, California State University Chico, California State University Monterey Bay, Sonoma State University, Hawaii Pacific University, University of Hawaii at Hilo, Western Washington University, Jessup University, Westmont, Vanguard University, Point Loma University, Dominican University and Academy of Art University.
Day one:
Schau shot a career-best performance on the 6,370-yard course. She completed the front nine holes in 40 strokes, scoring a birdie on the par-four fifth hole, and the back nine in 38, totaling 78. Her performance matched the team-best shot by Fenton on Oct. 22, 2024, at the Flagler Fall Slam.
Hochsprung followed just behind Schau, completing the front nine in 43 and the back nine in 39, totaling 82.
Garcia scored two birdies on the back nine at the par-four twelfth hole and the par-three fourteenth hole. She completed the course with 83 total strokes, 44 on the front nine and 39 on the back nine.
Seattle Pacific was in 15th place at the end of day one of the tournament.
Day two:
Garcia shot 38 on the front nine and 37 on the back, totaling 75, the lowest single-round score for the Falcons. She scored one birdie on the front nine at the par-four fifth hole.
Stamatis and Fenton both shot 39 on the front nine and 43 on the back nine, totaling 82 and improving by six strokes on the front nine from day one. Fenton scored a birdie on the par-four fifth hole.
Seattle Pacific finished the tournament in 16th place. The Falcons improved by eight strokes from round one to round two and collected six birdies across the two rounds.
Upcoming:
Seattle Pacific will next compete in the SMSU Classic at the Wigwam Golf Resort Blue Course in Phoenix, Arizona, on Monday, March 17, and Tuesday, March 18.
With a long wait until the next tournament and some cold days approaching for SPU, head coach Tyler Copp has decided to move team practices to primarily indoors.
“The next couple weeks are gonna be pretty cold,” Copp said. “I imagine a fair amount of the courses in our area will be closed, so the golf room [and] the simulator will be great for chipping and putting.”
Copp elaborated on the plan for training individual techniques and strengths.
“We’re using an app to track our stats in practices and tournaments, so that’s given us some good feedback,” Copp said. “Each player is going to have a different area to focus on and practice, so we’ll individualize that to help them score better when we have our two events in March.”
