Griz golf team opens spring season Tuesday in Hawaii
3/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Golf
The Montana women's golf team will open its spring season this week at the 30th edition of the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational at Kaneohe, Hawaii.
The 15-team tournament, which is being played on the Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course, opens with 36 holes on Tuesday and concludes with 18 more on Wednesday. The course is located on the windward side of the island of Oahu, with holes 13, 14 and 15 hugging the Pacific Ocean shoreline.
The tournament field includes Montana and Idaho of the Big Sky Conference, plus host Hawaii, Baylor, Cal State Northridge, Fresno State, Lipscomb, Middle Tennessee State, Nevada, Oklahoma State, Southern Illinois, Texas A&M, UTEP and Western Illinois, plus Osaka Gakuin of Japan.
Oklahoma State and Texas A&M have both won the tournament three times, Fresno State is led by former Montana coach Emily Milberger.
All seven of Montana's players -- senior Tara Green, juniors Hayley Bingham and Phoebe Tan, sophomores Barbora Bakova, Amanda Kahn and Alexa Schendelman and freshman Hailey Hoagland -- will be competing. Schendelman and Hoagland will be playing as individuals.
The team will tour Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial on its off day Thursday, then travel to California on Friday, where the Grizzlies will compete next Monday and Tuesday at the Sacramento State Invitational at Roseville, Calif.
The tournaments are the first two of four meets in which Montana will compete leading up to the Big Sky Conference championship in mid-April.
The Grizzlies will play at the Bobcat Spring Invitational later this month and at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic in early April. Both tournaments are in Arizona. Montana will also square off against Portland State in match play in Arizona two days before the Cowgirl Classic.
Montana, which finished fourth at the Big Sky championship last April, was picked third in this year's preseason coaches' poll, behind league newcomer Idaho and defending champion Portland State.
The Grizzlies will get an early gauge on how well they measure up against the Vandals Tuesday and Wednesday.
Players Mentioned
