Spring season continues in Texas

The spring season for the Montana golf team continues next week at the Women's Spring Break Invitational, hosted by Oral Roberts and Stephen F. Austin at the Trophy Club Country Club in Dallas, Texas.

The tournament will be played over three days, with 18 holes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Of course "spring" is a nominal term this year, with another round of wet snow arriving in western Montana this week. It's kept the Grizzlies cooped up at the Bill Ruegamer Indoor Golf Facility, a fantastic backup option but nothing like being out on an actual course.

"You can sense a restlessness with the players, just like all our spring sports that are going through this," said coach Matt Higgins. "But this is the environment we live in, so you have to expect it.

"I give the players a lot of credit. They have stayed positive and focused. They are still working hard on the things we can practice, but you can tell they want to get out and have a full-team practice outside."

Montana will compete next week with a lineup of junior Kari Opatz, junior Hailey Hoagland, sophomore Baylee Barckley, freshman Teigan Avery and senior Alexa Schendelman.

Barckley, with closing rounds of 74 and 73, led Montana at the Battle at the Rock last month. At The Gold Rush, it was Opatz leading the team by two strokes over Hailey Hoagland.

Schendelman will be playing for the first time since October.

That group will be joined by assistant coach Hayley Bingham. "She is from Dallas, so she is making this trip," said Higgins. "She's played the course, so her local knowledge should help us as we play our practice round on Sunday."

The tournament will feature 17 teams, including North Dakota and Northern Colorado from the Big Sky Conference.

Unlike previous tournaments this spring, which have been loaded with programs holding top-100 Golfstat rankings, none of the teams in next week's event are currently in the top 100. A majority are in the 200s, including Montana at 210.

One of the teams competing will be Louisiana-Monroe, which is led by former Griz coach Joni Stephens.

"This will be a new course and have new teams we normally don't see," said Higgins. "It should be an exciting tournament for the girls."

The team will travel on Saturday and arrive in Dallas with just enough time to take advantage of the course's practice areas that evening. Real greens and real sand traps will be a welcome site, since those are elements that are forced to be neglected when winter weather keeps them from being available.

"It will be good to get on some greens again and practice," said Higgins. "We'll do some chipping and putting, and work on bunker shots, things we can't work on right now when we're at home."

The tournament will be the third of five this season for Montana, which played tournaments at Riverside, Calif., and Seal Beach, Calif., last month.

The Grizzlies have had just one sub-310 score -- 309 in the final round at the Battle at the Rock -- through six rounds this spring.

"We need to hit greens, so we've worked on our iron shots more than we have tee shots as we've practiced these last couple of weeks," said Higgins.

"If we can hit greens, it's going to save us from other issues, like bunker shots and up-and-down stuff we can't practice right now. Our up-and-down stats haven't been great."

Montana didn't have a round better than 313 last spring through its first two tournaments. Then the Grizzlies got on a roll at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic, with rounds of 308, 300 and 302.

That led to a 307, 298, 297 showing at the Big Sky Conference championship, the best three-round total in program history at the league meet.

"Last spring we kind of came out the same way our first couple of tournaments," said Higgins. "The last few tournaments we started to play better, more at the level they expect to play at."

Next week's will be the only tournament in March for Montana. The Grizzlies will play at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic in Maricopa, Ariz., on April 6-7. The Big Sky championship will be played for the second consecutive year at Boulder City, Nev., on April 21-23.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Teigan Avery

Baylee Barckley

Hayley Bingham

Hailey Hoagland

Kari Opatz

Alexa Schendelman

University of Montana Athletics