Griz golfers open spring season in Arizona

The Montana women's golf team will open its five-tournament spring schedule this week when the Grizzlies travel to Arizona and the course that will host April's Big Sky Conference Championship.

Montana, after a practice round on Monday, will compete on Tuesday and Wednesday in the 14-team, 54-hole Bowling Green Intercollegiate at Wigwam Golf Club in Litchfield Park, Ariz.

The course will be the site of April's Big Sky Championship for the second consecutive spring. "Getting to play on the championship course is huge," said coach Jimmy Mee.

"The course will be in different shape in April as compared to mid-February. It will be firmer and the greens will be better, but we'll get to see it and work on a process, the mental aspect."

Competing at the season opener will be Raina Ports, Elle Higgins, Kendall Hayward, Bella Johnson and Hannah Ports.

Raina Ports (75.44), Higgins (75.56) and Hayward (76.00) all had stroke averages through the fall's four tournaments of 76 or better. Johnson was 78.00, Hannah Ports 79.56.

Montana last competed in mid-October at the Portland State Invitational after a planned late-October trip to North Carolina was dropped when a tournament was canceled.

Most of the team was able to get rounds on grass over the winter break between fall and spring semesters. Since the Grizzlies' return to Missoula last month, it's been inside.

"Plugging away at the indoor," said Mee. "It's a good time to work on full-swing stuff. It's hard when you start competing to commit to something and actually make a change.

"When we get back to campus in January, it's, okay, we have a month, let's make sure our full swing is dialed in. Our chipping and putting will improve as we get a chance to be on grass."

Montana had a team average in the spring of 303, which not too long ago would have been good enough to compete for a conference championship.

Now it takes scores in the low 290s if not better. Mee says Montana can get there, strokes available to be saved through the Grizzlies' mental approach to the course during competition.

"Our physical ability could have us competing for a conference championship," said Mee. "We're talented.

"How good are we mentally when we face our first adversity, when we hit our first bad shot, when we have our first three-putt? How can we handle that and move on? If we can keep improving our process, that stuff doesn't affect you quite as much."

Raina Ports led Montana at three of the Grizzlies' four fall tournaments, her best finish tying for 10th at the fall-opening Kelsey Chugg Invitational in Utah.

In those three tournaments she shot rounds of 77, 75, 71, 74, 75 and 73.

Higgins, top-three for Montana at all four fall tournaments, led the Grizzlies at the Tri-State Invitational, shooting rounds of 74 and 73 to tie for third in Spokane.

This week's tournament will open on Tuesday with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. Wednesday's final round will start at 9 a.m.

Montana will be one of five teams competing from the Big Sky. Also in the field are Idaho, Idaho State, Northern Colorado and Weber State.

The Grizzlies tied for 12th out of 14 teams at last year's Bowling Green Intercollegiate, carding rounds of 310, 321 and 321. Higgins (70, 79, 76) tied for 10th, the only Grizzly in the top 25.

Grand Canyon (294, 299, 303) won the tournament.

After play wraps up on Wednesday afternoon, Montana won't be in competition again until March 14-16 at the Red Rocks Invitational in Sedona, Ariz.

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Players Mentioned

Kendall Hayward

Elle Higgins

Bella Johnson

Hannah Ports

Raina Ports

University of Montana Athletics