Griz finish 15th at final fall outing

Sunday, October 30

Hot Springs Village, Ark.

Montana

Little Rock Golf Classic

11/1/2016 6:01:00 PM | Golf

By: Montana Sports Information

Results

The Montana women's golf team shot a final-round 314 on Tuesday and finished 15th out of 16 teams at the Little Rock Golf Classic at the Diamante Country Club in Hot Springs Village, Ark.

It was the last of five fall tournaments for the Grizzlies, who won't compete again until the Battle at the Rock in Riverside, Calif., in mid-February.

Junior Kari Opatz (79-75-76--230) shot a 76 on Tuesday to conclude the tournament as Montana's top finisher. She tied for 31st.

Freshman Teigan Avery (86-79-77--242) had her best round of the tournament on Tuesday, firing a 77 to end up in 78th place.

No other Grizzly broke 80 on Tuesday. "Again, we struggled with the greens and with our putting," said coach Matt Higgins.

"We knew these greens were going to be different than what we're used to, so we did a lot to prepare for it. But when you get into a tournament situation and there is more pressure than there is in practice, it's different."

Sophomore Baylee Barckley (79-74-81--234) tied for 48th, junior Hailey Hoagland (79-80-80--239) tied for 68th, and redshirt freshman Abby Pfeifer (86-90-86--262) finished 85th.

Central Arkansas (298-295-298--891), the only team to card three sub-300 scores, won the tournament by six strokes over UTEP (295-298-304--897) and seven over North Texas (299-298-301--898).

UTEP's June Ting (70-72-76--218), Central Arkansas's Brenda Gonzalez (73-73-72--218) and UMKC's Cynthia Diaz (71-71-76--218) shared medalist honors at 2-over.

Montana wraps up its fall season with a team scoring average of 312.8, an improvement on last year's 315.6 that the Grizzlies averaged for five fall tournaments.

The 302 the team shot in its second round this fall, at the Washington State Cougar Cup, was a score not carded last year until Montana's 20th round, well into the spring season.

"I think we made some improvements from last fall to this fall," he said. "We saw some good scores and some glimpses of how well this team can play. It was good to see the improvements and the lower scores.

"We still need that fourth score. Hopefully over the winter we can make some more improvements and next spring we can have four or even five good scores. That's what will ultimately get our team score down."