Griz get early jump on spring season

The Montana women's golf team will open its spring season this week when the Grizzlies compete in the two-day Bowling Green Intercollegiate at Litchfield Park, Ariz.

The 54-hole tournament will be played on the Blue Course at the Wigwam Golf Club, the same 18 holes that will host the Big Sky Conference Championship in late April.

"I like having an early tournament," said coach Jimmy Mee, whose team won't compete again for another month, when Montana competes at the Red Rocks Invitational in mid-March.

"It's on our conference championship course and gets the competitive juices flowing. It will give us an idea of what we need to work on for the next month before we get back after it."

The 15-team tournament will play 36 holes on Tuesday starting at 8 a.m., 18 on Wednesday teeing off at 9 a.m. Three of the teams will be from the Big Sky: Montana, Idaho and Portland State.

Montana will compete with a line-up of senior Raina Ports (1), junior Kate Bogenschutz (2), sophomore Bella Johnson (3), senior Hannah Ports (4) and freshman Katie Lewis (5).

The Grizzlies played the Wigwam Blue Course two weeks ago on a preseason trip south and have benefitted from a mild winter, getting outside for a handful of days last week as local courses opened.

"It's not super comparable to what we'll be playing on (at Wigwam this week), but at least we're playing," said Mee.

"The greens will be different but it's nice to hit some shots into greens and get out of the (simulator) for a couple days."

Montana will have a five-tournament spring schedule, with the Bowling Green Intercollegiate the only event in February, the Red Rocks Invitational the only one in March.

The Grizzlies will compete at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic and Bobcat Desert Classic in April leading up to the Big Sky Championship, which will be contested April 20-22.

Montana played in five tournaments in the fall, finishing with a team stroke average of 311.6.

Raina Ports (76.4), Lewis (78.4), Johnson (78.6) and Bogenschutz (79.1) all had sub-80 averages for the fall. Hannah Ports had a fall average of 80.1.

"It's still close all the way through, so who knows what the line-up will be when we go to Sedona next month," said Mee.

"It's been fun to see the improvement from when we went to Wigwam two weeks ago to now. Everybody seems to be hitting it well right now."

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Players Mentioned

Kate Bogenschutz

Bella Johnson

Katie Lewis

Hannah Ports

Raina Ports

University of Montana Athletics