Golfers continue spring season in Arizona

The Montana women's golf team, now less than a month away from the Big Sky Conference Championship, will continue its spring season this weekend at the Red Rocks Invitational.

The two-day, 54-hole tournament will be contested at Agave Highlands in Cornville, Ariz., with 36 holes scheduled for Saturday, 18 for Sunday.

Nineteen teams will be competing in the 14th edition of Northern Arizona's spring tournament. College of Charleston won last year's tournament, NAU's Sofia Anokhina was medalist.

Of the 19 teams, a dozen have a better GolfStat ranking than Montana's 212, but none of the teams competing this weekend are in the top 100, which should make for a competitive field.

The teams ranking in the top 150 are New Mexico State (106), Southern Utah (118), Gonzaga (128), Cal State Fullerton (137), Wichita State (141) and Northern Arizona (148).

Six of the 11 schools in the Big Sky Conference will be going head to head, with the Grizzlies being joined by Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, Weber State (219), Montana State (222) and Idaho State (246).

(The five league teams who won't be in the field all have rankings of 162 or better: Sacramento State (74), Idaho (84), Northern Colorado (143), Portland State (150) and Eastern Washington (162).)

The tournament is Montana's third of four in the buildup to next month's Big Sky Championship, which will be held April 19-21 at Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nev.

The Grizzlies finished 14th out of 15 teams at the Battle at the Rock in mid-February, with rounds of 322, 316 and 312.

At last week's Lady Thunderbird Invitational, played at the Sunbrook Golf Club in St. George, Utah, Montana shot rounds of 325 and 310.

Freshman Kylie Esh, with rounds of 77, 80 and 76, led Montana at the Battle at the Rock, with senior Baylee Barckley (81-76-78) finishing two strokes behind Esh.

Those two flipped positions last week. Barckley (79-75) tied for 24th, giving her Montana's only top-50 finish this spring. Esh (81-80) tied for 57th.

Freshmen Brooklyn Van Bebber and Allison Sobol were the team's No. 3 and 4 finishers at the first two spring tournaments.

Montana's final pre-championship tournament will be the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic, held April 8-9 at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, Ariz.

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Players Mentioned

Baylee Barckley

Kylie Esh

Allison Sobol

Brooklyn Van Bebber

University of Montana Athletics