Big Sky Championship up next for Grizzlies

The Montana women's golf team reaches the apex of its 2018-19 schedule this week when the Grizzlies compete at the Big Sky Conference Championship.

The three-day, 54-hole tournament will be held Friday through Sunday at the Boulder Creek Golf Course in Boulder City, Nev., with teams playing 18 holes each day.

Montana, which has a Golf Stat ranking of 209, will be an underdog in a field that includes Sacramento State (74) and Idaho (81), plus five other teams ranked higher than the Grizzlies.

Idaho won the championship in 2016 and '18, Sacramento State in 2017 in a playoff over the Vandals. The Hornets have finished in the top two each of the past five years.

Southern Utah has a pre-tournament ranking of 125, Northern Colorado 136, Northern Arizona 145, Portland State 153 and Eastern Washington 161.

Beyond the rankings, there is this: Montana has only in the last week gotten access to local courses. The bulk of the team's opportunities to play on grass during the spring portion of its schedule came in the four tournaments the Grizzlies competed in since mid-February.

"We've literally played 27 holes (in Missoula), and nine of those came on temporary greens," said coach Kris Nord earlier this week. "The girls have been great about getting out of practice what we can.

"In that sense it takes some pressure off us, because we haven't had a chance to truly practice on a good golf course or good greens. It's hard to say where we should finish stroke-wise. Our goal is to play to our potential, whatever that might be given the fact we haven't played as much as normal."

For the fourth straight year the Big Sky Championship will be played at Boulder Creek, which is made up of three, nine-hole courses. This year's tournament will be played on the Desert Hawk and Coyote Run courses.

"It's a fair course, but conditions tend to get testy with the winds, especially in the afternoon. The teams that tee off at 7 a.m. and can get nine holes in without any wind will have an advantage," said Nord. "By 11 it starts to get gusty. The course can really challenge your patience."

It will be a mix of experience and new faces for the Grizzlies at the championship.

Senior Baylee Barckley will be competing for the fourth time, junior Teigan Avery for the third time, sophomore Faith D'Ortenzio for the second.

They will be joined in the lineup by freshmen Kylie Esh and Allison Sobol.

Barckley had a splashy debut as a freshman, tying for fifth at the championship with rounds of 72, 73 and 72. Her 54-hole total of 217 in 2016 tied for the best score at the championship in program history.

She tied for 37th as a sophomore, with rounds of 84, 81 and 77, the same year Avery made her first championship appearance by tying for 51st, with scores of 85, 85 and 79.

Both players tied for 20th last spring. Barckley shot 77-74-75, Avery 75-77-74 as Montana finished seventh. D'Ortenzio tied for 51st with scores of 79, 81 and 82.

Esh enters championship week with a season scoring average of 77.91, Sobol a 79.77.

It will be the final collegiate tournament for Barckley, who has a career scoring average of 77.77 and could move up to second on the program's career scoring average list with a good showing this week.

Tara Green holds down the top spot of 76.85. Lauren Howell is ranked second at 77.70, Olivia Weber third at 77.75.

Barckley also suggested this week she is not really into ties, referring to both the 217 championship record she shares with Olivia Weber and the 68 she shot to open the Red Rocks Invitational last month, which tied for the low round in program history with Tara Green, who shot a 68 twice, and Jill Walker.

"I'm going to tell Baylee, and I already have, that she's had a great career. This is just icing on the cake. Just go out and do your best, and that's kind of the angle she's taking," said Nord.

"Everybody tries to low-key it, but it's hard. You get up on the first tee, and your heart is pumping. So I love the approach Baylee is taking. You can't get too ramped up. It's counter-productive."

If Barckley takes the most experience of the team into the championship, it's Esh, one of the freshmen, who takes the most momentum.

She tied for 23rd last week at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic, shooting scores of 78, 72 and 74, the middle round the best score she's carded as a collegiate player.

Four of her six rounds at Montana's last two tournaments have been played at 75 or better.

D'Ortenzio, too, is surging, though her scores don't always reflect it. She opened with a 77 and closed with a 74 at Red Rocks, and had a second-round score of 76 at the Cowgirl Classic.

But she also had three rounds in the low 80s at those two tournaments, the result of a putter that is not yet dialed in.

"Faith is hitting the ball really well," said Nord. "It's a day-to-day project with her putting, to get some wrinkles out and get some confidence going, but she's really settled in swing-wise the last five tournaments she's played."

Montana finished seventh at last year's championship, with scores of 306, 309 and 297.

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Players Mentioned

Teigan Avery

Baylee Barckley

Faith D'Ortenzio

Kylie Esh

Tara Green

Allison Sobol

University of Montana Athletics