Griz golf shifts from snowy Missoula to Sedona
2/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Golf
The University of Montana women???s golf squad will return to competition Saturday at the Sedona, Arizona Red Rocks Invitational hosted by Big Sky leader Northern Arizona at the Oakcreek Country Club. The Grizzlies will be looking to improve upon their third place Big Sky standing, meeting three Big Sky teams at the 36-hole event.
Looking to quickly adjust from Montana winter training conditions, seven of eight Griz ladies will travel south for the weekend. The Montana lineup will include fall Big Sky Players of the Week Carissa Simmons and Kacey Valla. The scoring team will also consist of fall low-round scorer Lauren Howell and Montana amateur runner-up Rose Stepanek. The final member will be UM senior and 2008 ???Golfer of the Week, Jacqueline Olson.
Traveling with the team to compete in the individual pursuit will be last year???s low Grizzly at Red Rocks, Ashli Helstrom and senior Alyssa Williamson.
Freshman Olivia Weber, who claimed the low Montana tournament score at the fall LPGA International tournament, will miss the competition for personal reasons.
The field for the 2010 Red Rocks Invitational will include 18 teams ??? host Northern Arizona, Cal Poly, CS-Bakersfield, Eastern Michigan, Grand Canyon, Louisiana Monroe, Montana, Montana State, Northern Colorado, North Dakota State, Portland, South Carolina Upstate, Southern Utah, UC-Riverside, Utah Valley, Western Michigan, Western New Mexico and Xavier.
Notably absent from this year???s competition will be the top three teams from 2009, leaving NAU as the top remaining school. Lumberjack Alexa Kim will also be the highest returning scorer, having finished sixth in 2009.
Montana took tenth in the 2009 event, 47 strokes back of winner Michigan and 27 behind Northern Arizona.
Two weeks past the release of the Big Sky conference mid-season coaches poll that put Northern Arizona at No. 1 and Montana at No.3, Red Rocks will host four Big Sky teams. In addition to NAU and UM will be Montana State and Northern Colorado.
According to the sport???s scoring authority, golfstat.com, the Grizzlies currently rank 144thnationally. The Lumberjacks sit at 112th while Northern Colorado and Montana State are in 183rd and 186th respectively, the fifth and seventh Big Sky picks in the spring poll.
Though Montana State finished 11 strokes ahead of the Grizzlies at Sedona in 2009, the Bobcats are sure to feel the absence of 2009 tournament winner Kelley Gillum.????
At the September Eastern Washington/Gonzaga invite, the Grizzlies took a close second to NAU, finishing just six strokes back of the Lumberjacks. At that same tournament, the Grizzlies outdistanced MSU by 47 strokes.
Red Rocks will be the first meeting of the season between Northern Colorado and Montana.
Compared with teams that train in warm weather areas, or that have quality winter driving ranges, the Grizzlies will find themselves at a slight disadvantage in early spring competition.
For the past few weeks, the team has been hitting indoors for two hours a day. Warm conditions have also given the Golfers an opportunity to work on 10-100 yard shots outdoors on the practice football field.
Though coach Joanne Steele maintains that this work on the Grizzly short game is a vital step in building a strong swing, the Grizzlies will enter spring play without the serious rounds that develop consistency for most teams.
Holding training sessions in makeshift Adams Center facilities this week, Steele said, ???This Sedona course is a good place to start competing after such a long lapse for our athletes. The course will have some challenging hills, but will include some good birdie holes, ones to help our players get reacquainted with competition.?? Shot selection and course management are also necessary in balance at this venue, which gives is a good chance to work on both.???
Regarding the presence of senior Jacqueline Olson on the tournament???s scoring team, Steele said, ???Going into spring play, Jacki has shown a real desire to compete. She qualified to score for us during fall tournamens, but some injuries kept her from traveling to all of our competitions. I have seen a real focus for her to climb into that top five that qualify for team competition. In addition to her experience, which can be vital in situations like this tournament, we can depend on her competitive nature and her desire to go out on a high note in a collegiate career that has seen so much success already.???
Results for the February 27 and 28 Red Rocks invite can be found at www.golfstat.com.
