This was a spectacular step forward.
Seattle Pacific University’s women’s golf team competed in its second spring tournament at the Southwest Minnesota State University Classic on Monday, March 17, and Tuesday, March 18, in Phoenix, Arizona.
Five of the team’s seven golfers competed: sophomore Zoe Garcia, freshman Natalie Eklund, freshman Anika Schau, junior Brigitte Fenton and junior Sara Rhodes.
Seattle Pacific finished seventh out of 13 teams, a marked improvement from its previous outing at the LA Spring Invite, where SPU placed last out of 16 teams.
The Falcons’ best golfer across the tournament was Garcia, who matched her single-round best and SPU’s team-best score of 75 on day one. Garcia tied for second on the individual leaderboard at the end of day one and finished the tournament in third place.
Garcia shot four birdies on day one, the first on a par five and the rest on par fours. She shot 40 on the front nine holes and 35 on the back nine.
Schau turned in the second-best performance for the Falcons on day one. Her first-round 82 (43 on the front nine and 39 on the back) was highlighted by a birdie on the par-four 16th hole.
Fenton and Rhodes both shot 82 by the end of the first round. Rhodes shot 41 on both halves of the course. Fenton was the only Falcon to shoot in the 30s on the front nine in round one, finishing the first half of the course with a 39 (including a birdie on the first par-five hole) and shooting 43 on the back nine.
Eklund shot 45 on the front and 41 on the back, totaling 86, and had one birdie on a par five.
Seattle Pacific finished sixth place in the first round, something head coach Tyler Copp was proud of.
“I was proud of our first round, minus a few big numbers we took on the more challenging holes,” Copp said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t take advantage of being just 5 strokes back of second place on day two [but] to finish 7th in a full-field event like that is a huge step forward for our young program.”
On day two, Garcia shot one birdie on each half of the course, the first on a par three and the second on a par four. She ended round two with a score of 82 (44 on the front nine and 38 on the back).
Copp said Garcia’s top-three performance was a long time coming.
“It wasn’t surprising that Zoe took home a top-three finish,” Copp said. “She’s put a lot of work in since the fall season and proved it with low qualifying rounds at practice. She’s been due for two good days in a row.”
Fenton and Eklund were two of five golfers tied for 48th on the individual leaderboard. Eklund improved by three strokes from round one to round two. She shot 42 on the front and 41 on the back, totaling 83. Fenton shot an 87 (42 on the front and 45 on the back).
Schau shot an 84 (43 on the front and 41 on the back), finishing the tournament tied with three others for 37th. Rhodes shot 96 (48 on the front and 47 on the back) and tied for 60th.
Seattle Pacific finished the tournament with 657 total strokes and 97 points. The Falcons scored 56 points on day two of the tournament, 15 more than the 41 they scored on the first day.
Upcoming:
Seattle Pacific’s next competition is the Southern Colorado Classic from Sunday, March 23, to Monday, March 24, in Pueblo, Colorado, at the Walking Stick Golf Resort.
