Griz approaching Ocotillo with championship aspirations
4/20/2013 12:00:00 AM | Golf
April 20, 2013
The Montana golf team will play in the 2013 Big Sky Conference championship Sunday through Tuesday. The 54-hole tournament will be contested at the Ocotillo Golf Resort in Chandler, Ariz. This is the fifth straight year the conference championship has been hosted by Ocotillo.
The Grizzlies will be represented by senior Olivia Weber, junior Lindsay Reeve, sophomore Tara Green and freshmen Hayley Bingham and Phoebe Tan.
The Big Sky's 11 golf teams will play a practice round at Ocotillo on Saturday, and the tournament will begin Sunday with the opening 18 holes. A single round will be played each day on the 6,169-yard, par-72 course.
The winning team will earn both Big Sky Conference champion honors and a spot in the NCAA West Regional, which will be held May 10-12 at the Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto, Calif.
Fans can follow the proceedings through live tournament stats at GolfStat.com.
Who to watch for: Northern Arizona was the heavy preseason favorite in the coaches' poll back in January, and the Lumberjacks have the Big Sky's best per-round average for the fall and spring seasons of 306.6, but if the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic is any indication, Portland State is the team that should have a target on its back.
At the Cowgirl Classic, which was played two weeks ago on the same Ocotillo course with nine Big Sky teams competing, the Vikings finished third overall, 15 shots ahead of NAU and Montana, which tied for sixth.
All the other Big Sky teams were at least nine shots back from the Lumberjacks and Grizzlies.
Why Portland State is vulnerable: The Vikings, who have a per-round average of 309.6, rely heavily on Aram Choi and Britney Yada. At the Cowgirl Classic, Choi and Yada were brilliant, finishing 5-over and 6-over, respectively, with both players shooting rounds of 1-under 71 during the tournament.
Their play led PSU to its third-place finish. The Vikings did not finish higher in the team standings because of their lack of depth. In the nine rounds played over the course of three days by Portland State's other three players, there were just two rounds played in the 70s, seven in the 80s.
Tournament bona fides: Portland State and Northern Arizona both have six championships in the 19-year history of the Big Sky tournament. The Lumberjacks also have four second-place finishes and three third-place finishes.
Montana, Idaho State, Montana State, Northern Colorado, Sacramento State and Weber State all have a single title to their credit. Boise State, which is no longer a member of the Big Sky, claimed the first league title in 1993.
Montana won the 2006 championship, but the Grizzlies have not broken into the top three in the six tournaments since.
A look back at the 2012 tournament: Northern Colorado shot a 290 to jump out to a surprising opening-day lead by six strokes over Sacramento State and eight over Northern Arizona. Portland State, which had won the previous two championships, shot a 312 to play its way out of contention early.
Sac State shot a 291 on day two to take a two-shot lead over Northern Colorado, but the Bears won their first Big Sky title by shooting a 291 on the final day, with the Hornets shooting a 295 to finish two strokes back.
Montana shot a first-day 303 to open in fourth place. The Grizzlies never moved out of fourth place, shooting subsequent rounds of 301 and 299. The team's three-round total of 903 was its lowest score at a Big Sky tournament, one shot better than the 2006 title team's 904.
Five reasons Montana has a shot
1. The Grizzlies are rolling as they come off their recent spring break trip to Arizona, which culminated in a solid showing at the Cowgirl Classic. The team played three Phoenix-area courses before arriving in Chandler for two practice rounds at Ocotillo before the start of Cowgirl Classic.
The result? After opening with a 325 in windy conditions that allowed just three teams to break 320, Montana came back with rounds of 310 and 304. Their final-round 304 was the Grizzlies' best round since shooting a 301 at the Johnie Imes Invitational in early October.
"We definitely have a lot of good energy and feel like we're carrying a lot of momentum out of our last event with the way we made strides from the first to third rounds and finished strongly," UM coach Emily Milberger said. "We feel like our games are peaking at the right time.
"I think the (extended) trip down there was vital for us in many ways. There is a consistency to playing golf, and I think each player had an opportunity to find their own rhythm and start to build some confidence in their games."
2. Tara Green is playing the most consistent golf of her career. She's been Montana's low shooter at six of the team's last seven tournaments, and she's shot 10 straight rounds in the 70s, with a season-low 73 in the second round of the Cowgirl Classic.
Green, who tied for 28th at last year's Big Sky championship after shooting an opening-round 80, tied for eighth overall at the Cowgirl Classic. She was the fourth-place Big Sky golfer behind PSU's Choi and Yada and Montana State's Paige Crawford.
"Tara still hasn't hit her highest gear yet," Milberger said. "She's made some awesome strides throughout the year in terms of her course management and the way she manages herself over the course of a round.
"Tara has the experience from playing there last year, and she reaffirmed that last week. She's excited about how she's playing and looking forward to throwing some good numbers up there and putting herself in a position to claim the title."
3. Experience. Reeve, Bingham and Tan were all playing Ocotillo for the first time at the Cowgirl Classic. Tan went from a high round of 85 to subsequent rounds of 76 and 78. Bingham improved from a high round of 85 to a score of 76 in the final round, and Reeve improved by two shots each round.
Montana's 304 on the final day of the Cowgirl Classic was the result of individual scores of 74, 76, 76 and 78.
All three players are in their first year in the program, with Tan in her first few months. The Singapore native joined the Grizzlies in January before the start of the spring semester. Reeve is a transfer from New Mexico State.
"We're young on paper, but it feels like we're more seasoned than any numbers on a page. It feels like we have a lot more experience," Milberger said.
"I think that comes from the pedigree the younger players have. They've had a lot of national exposure, played in a lot of big events and are really using those experiences to their advantage as we get into postseason play."
4. Olivia Weber will settle for nothing less than going out on top. At her first Big Sky championship as a sophomore in 2011, Weber shot rounds of 76, 79 and 77 to finish in a tie for 22nd. Last year she had consistent rounds of 74, 73 and 73 to finish in a tie for ninth.
At the Cowgirl Classic earlier this month, she opened with a round of 81 in the windy conditions, then improved to 76 in round two before shooting a closing-round 74, a departing score that let the rest of the Big Sky players in the field know she will be someone who is going to have to be reckoned with.
"Olivia has a lot of experience on that golf course, probably somewhere in the high 20s for the number of rounds she's played at Ocotillo," Milberger said.
"She has the knowledge of the course, and she is really starting to peak now, which is exciting to see. She's ready to break into some really low rounds and put up a good fight for the title."
