Ports shoots 74, Griz eye home tournament

Montana senior Raina Ports shot a final-round 74 on Tuesday as the Pat Lesser Harbottle Invitational wrapped up at the Tacoma Country and Golf Club in Tacoma, Wash.

After carding rounds of 81 and 77 on Monday, Ports matched the two birdies she had over the tournament's opening 36 holes on Tuesday while cutting her bogeys down to four.

Ports tied for 57th in the deep, competitive field.

"She probably hit 10 out of 14 fairways today instead of just a few per round yesterday," said coach Jimmy Mee. "She just had a lot better ball-striking today."

Montana shot a final-round 310 after posting scores of 326 and 318 on Monday. The Grizzlies placed 15th in the 15-team field.

Kate Bogenschutz (78-79-79) tied for 69th, while Katie Lewis (82-82-82) finished 79th, Hope Torres (88-80-79) 80th and Salina Lui (85-86-78) 81st.

"We hit more fairways and made fewer bogeys from the middle of the fairway, which was good," said Mee. "There are still some things we have to clean up, but there was better golf played today."

Gonzaga (291-280-285), at 8-under, won the tournament by six strokes over Santa Clara (288-286-288). British Columbia (290-293-290) placed third.

British Columbia's Sienna Harder (71-73-68) moved up seven spots over the final 18 holes to claim medalist honors at 4-under. The top five finishers broke par, with three more finishing at even.

Montana will host the Sun Mountain Intercollegiate on Monday and Tuesday at The Ranch Club in Missoula. It will be the program's first home tournament since the fall of 2021.

Teams from Eastern Washington, Idaho, Idaho State, Portland State and Weber State will join Montana, with a handful of individuals from Washington State also scheduled to compete.

There will be 36 holes played on Monday, 18 on Tuesday.

"It will be nice to get home and get on a course we know and hopefully play a little cleaner and see what we can do," said Mee.

Montana will wrap up its fall schedule on Oct. 27-28 at the French Broad Collegiate Invitational in Arden, N.C.

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Players Mentioned

Kate Bogenschutz

Katie Lewis

Salina Lui

Raina Ports

Hope Torres

University of Montana Athletics