Griz return to play at Yellowstone Intercollegiate

The Montana women's golf team will play its second tournament of the fall season next week when the Grizzlies compete in the 54-hole Yellowstone Intercollegiate in Bozeman.

The two-day tournament will take place at Riverside Country Club, with 36 holes scheduled for Monday, 18 on Tuesday.

Eleven teams are in the field, five of those from the Big Sky Conference: Montana, Montana State, Idaho State, Southern Utah and Weber State.

Also competing will be Cal Baptist, Cal State Northridge, Creighton, North Dakota, North Dakota State and Tarleton State.

Montana State had the field's best national ranking at the close of last season at 107. North Dakota State (142) and Tarleton State (148) also ranked in the top 150.

"If we can go out and do what we do, it will be good to get a feel for where this squad is," said Mee, whose team opened the fall with a sixth-place finish at the UNC Bear Brawl in Greeley, Colo., last week.

"The scores we shot in Colorado are not the scores they are going to shoot on a week-in, week-out basis. Hopefully we can get a baseline of, let's go play some normal golf and see where we shake out."

Mee will compete with six of the seven players on his roster, with junior Anna Stensrud sitting this tournament out. The Yellowstone Intercollegiate will mark the collegiate debut of freshman Ellie Sticha.

The lineup, with one player competing as an individual, will not be set until the team has more qualifying on Friday.

Montana placed sixth out of six teams at the Greeley Country Club last week, with freshman Zoe Bar-Or finishing 15th in her first collegiate tournament.

Bar-Or, who opened with a 2-over 73, was hanging around the top names on the leaderboard until a final-round 80 dropped her to a 15th-place final finish.

"For three-quarters of it, she was unflappable," said Mee. "She knew she was in a pretty good spot and in the mix, then all of a sudden we're putting the cart before the horse and things can kind of unravel.

"She's done it in junior golf, so she knows what to do, but it's still a big step up from junior golf to playing against that type of field. Once she was in the mix, I think she got a little nervy.

"It was a great lesson for her to learn. The next one, if I take care of what I can take care of, the results will take care of themselves."

Bar-Or had seven birdies at the 54-hole Bear Brawl, matching senior Kate Bogenschutz for the team high.

"Around the green, she is unbelievable," said Mee of Bar-Or. "She hits so many shots within five feet and several within a foot.

"When she gets the driver going, with her iron play and her short game around the green, she is going to give herself a ton of opportunities."

Katie Lewis improved from 83 to 78 to 71 in Greeley to tie for 22nd. Bogenschutz (76-78-80) finished 25th, Hope Torres (79-79-83) was 30th, Bella Johnson (84-81-84) placed 34th.

One week after the Yellowstone Intercollegiate, Montana will host the Sun Mountain Intercollegiate at the Missoula Country Club.

The Grizzlies will be joined by Eastern Washington, Idaho State and Portland State.

"Four good teams. It's going to be a blast," said Mee. "Hope the weather holds out. It would be fun to get some people out there and get a little home-course advantage."

Montana's fall season will conclude at the French Broad Collegiate Invitational in Arden, N.C., in late October.

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Players Mentioned

Zoe Bar-Or

Kate Bogenschutz

Bella Johnson

Katie Lewis

Anna Stensrud

Ellie Sticha

Hope Torres

University of Montana Athletics