Greens limit Grizzlies in Washington

The Montana women's golf team opened the Pat Lesser Harbottle Invitational with scores of 309 and 310 on Monday at the Tacoma Country and Golf Club in Lakewood, Wash.

The Grizzlies are sitting in 17th place out of 18 teams going into Tuesday's final round.

"It sounds like a broken record, but we're just not making putts, whether that's birdie putts or par saves or short putts. It's killing our ability to score at this point," said coach Kris Nord.

"We're playing well enough onto the greens, but we're not making any putts of consequence."

Both of Montana's rounds on Monday were better than its 313.3 scoring average through its first two fall tournaments.

All of the Grizzlies' scoring rounds were in the 70s, with the day's best score a 76, shot by Faith D'Ortenzio and Allison Sobol in the morning, Tricia Joyce in the afternoon.

"Tricia probably had eight birdie putts within 10 feet and didn't get any of them to drop," said Nord. "I love the fact our girls kept fighting through it even though they were getting frustrated."

Joyce (78-76) and Sobol (76-78) are tied for 60th in the 95-player field. D'Ortenzio (76-79) is tied for 66th.

Gonzaga's Quynn Duong (69-69) leads the field at 6-under. She was one of seven golfers to play the first two rounds under par.

The Bulldogs shot rounds of 290 and 278 and are running away from the field. They will take a 19-stroke lead over Seattle (292-295) and Grand Canyon (294-293) into the final 18 holes on Tuesday.

Montana is 13 strokes out of the top 10, a gap that will only be bridged if the Grizzlies start warming up on the greens.

"We talked about being in the top 10, and we can do that, but that's a big if right now," said Nord. "We have to play a little better and we have to putt a lot better."

University of Montana Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Faith D'Ortenzio

Tricia Joyce

Allison Sobol

Related Videos