Griz return to action, travel to Utah

The Montana women's golf team will return to action later this week when the Grizzlies compete at the three-day Lady Thunderbird Invitational in St. George, Utah.

The 18-18-18 tournament will be held Thursday through Saturday at the Sunbrook Golf Club. It's the sixth consecutive spring that Montana has played at the Lady Thunderbird Invitational.

The Grizzlies opened their spring tournament schedule tying for 12th out of 14 teams at the Bowling Green Intercollegiate in Arizona in mid-February.

Freshman Elle Higgins was the 18-hole leader after opening with a 1-under 70. She closed with rounds of 79 and 76 to tie for 10th in the 78-player field.

Raina Ports (76-81-79) tied for 36th, Tricia Joyce (82-78-83) tied for 51st, Kendall Hayward (82-83-83) tied for 65th and Hannah Ports (82-84-84) tied for 70th.

Those same five players will travel to St. George this week as Montana faces a less challenging course than Wigwam Golf Club, site of the Bowling Green Intercollegiate and in April the Big Sky Championship.

"It's pretty straightforward. There is nothing too tricky about it," said first-year coach Jimmy Mee of Sunbrook Golf Club.

"It's a desert course. The fairways and greens are great, the rough is sparse, so the ball can funnel off into some nasty lies. Overall, pretty scoreable if the weather is reasonable."

This week's tournament will be hosted by Southern Utah, which is coached by former Grizzly great Tara (Green) Oglesby, who owns the best career scoring average (76.85) in Montana program history.

Montana will be one of 13 teams competing. Other Big Sky teams traveling to St. George will be Weber State, Portland State and Idaho State.

Weber State was picked third in the Big Sky preseason poll, with Montana coming in eighth, Portland State ninth and Idaho State 10th.

"If we can compete with Weber, that would be awesome," said Mee. "They have typically been top four in the Big Sky. If we can show up and play well, we'll know we're on the right track."

The 18-18-18 format over three days, which is the one Montana will play at the Big Sky Championship in April, is the first for the Grizzlies since last year's Big Sky Championship.

Most tournaments open with a 36-hole day, followed by 18 holes on day two.

"It's kind of a double-edged sword," said Mee. "If you're playing well, you want to keep playing. If you're playing poorly, okay, it's only 18 today, we can regroup and go back out tomorrow.

"It's nice to have a few of these. Play the first round, get some feedback, play the second round, get some feedback, then go into the third round and hopefully shoot your best score."

Montana had more scores in the 80s (9) than in the 70s (6) when the Grizzlies opened their spring season at Wigwam Golf Club, a course that challenges a player's short game.

"After Wigwam, we started working on the variety of shots we're hitting around the greens and not just grabbing one club and hitting the same shot," said Mee.

"If they have a lot of green to work with, I want to see them keeping it lower to the ground and running it up there, just playing the percentages better."

Montana will play at the Red Rocks Invitational in Sedona, Ariz., March 16-17, then open April with a two-tournament road trip to Arizona for the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic and Bobcat Desert Classic.

The Big Sky Championship will be held at Wigwam Golf Club April 15-17.

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Players Mentioned

Kendall Hayward

Elle Higgins

Tricia Joyce

Hannah Ports

Raina Ports

University of Montana Athletics