Montana finishes eighth in Utah

Monday, September 19

Wolf Creek Golf Course; Eden, Utah

Montana

Kelsey Chugg Invitational

9/20/2022 3:57:00 PM | Golf

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By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana women's golf team shot a final-round 311 on Tuesday to finish eighth out of 10 teams at the Kelsey Chugg Invitational, held at the Wolf Creek Golf Course in Eden, Utah.

Freshman Raina Ports, in her second collegiate tournament, tied for 10th after shooting rounds of 71, 77 and 77. She was the lone Griz golfer to crack the top 25.

Her 1-under 71 for Monday's opening 18 holes tied for the third-best score of the three-round, 68-player tournament.

"If her putter gets hot, that 71 is a 67. She had lots of birdie chances. She was just steady. Her pars were a lot of tap-in pars. It was a low-stress, very sound 71. It was really impressive," said coach Kris Nord.

Ports led the entire field in carding pars, which she did on 40 of the 54 holes. "She's a good striker of the ball. It's just a real solid swing. There is a big upside for her."

Madison Cecil (79-77-77) tied for 30th, freshman Kendall Hayward (80-76-78) tied for 35th, Kylie Franklin (75-78-82) tied for 39th and Jessica Ponce (83-85-79) tied for 56th.

Hayward played the course's five par 3's at even. Only one golfer in the field was better on the short holes.

Competing as individuals, Emmy Sundby (80-84-80) and Tricia Joyce (81-80-83) tied for 51st. Freshman Hannah Ports, who shot rounds of 90 and 83 on Monday, closed with a 78 on Tuesday to tie for 64th.

"I'm very encouraged about the younger kids and how they hung in there. It's a tough course, but we made it a little tougher on ourselves with our approach shots," said Nord.

"I don't think anybody had a hot putter the whole time and that was really the difference between us scoring and not. I'm still upbeat about our chances if we keep getting a little better."

Creighton (296-296-303) won the tournament by five strokes over Montana State (295-306-299), nine over Omaha (310-303-291), which began the day tied with Montana in fifth place.

The Mavericks' 291 on Tuesday was the low team score of the tournament.

Weber State (298-308-300) and Eastern Washington (310-310-295) rounded out the top five.

Montana State's Scarlet Weidig-Velazquez (74-71-71) played the course to even-par over 54 holes to win the tournament by four strokes.

Montana led the entire field in pars, with 170, but ranked last in number of birdies, with 16.

The Grizzlies played the par 3's better than any other team, to an average of 3.16, but ranked eighth on the par 4's (4.43), last on the par 5's (5.41).

"This was a tough course, but other teams played it a lot better than we did," said Nord. "That's the reality."

Montana's busy fall schedule will continue next week at the Eagle Invitational. The three-day tournament, Monday through Wednesday, will be played at Indian Canyon Golf Course in Spokane.