Montana wins Sun Mountain Intercollegiate, Bar-Or co-medalist

Monday, September 28

Missoula Country Club; Missoula, Mont.

Montana

Sun Mountain Intercollegiate

Photo by: Tommy Martino/ University of Montana

Montana wins Sun Mountain Intercollegiate, Bar-Or co-medalist

9/29/2026 5:05:00 PM | Golf

Results Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana women's golf team won the Sun Mountain Intercollegiate on Tuesday, closing out the 54-hole tournament with a team score of 299 to finish 11 strokes up on second-place Idaho State.

The Grizzlies shot rounds of 308 and 295 on Monday, then held that lead all day Tuesday to win their first team title since 2021, when they won the Grizzly Invitational, also at the Missoula Country Club.

Freshman Zoe Bar-Or shot rounds of 77, 70 and 73 to share medalist honors with Portland State's Cynthia Ong. Both finished at 7-over, four shots clear of the rest of the field.

Bella Johnson (81-75-70) finished sixth, Kate Bogenschutz (78-74-78) tied for 10th, Katie Lewis (76-76-80) tied for 13th and Hope Torres (77-80-78) finished 17th.

The all-Big Sky Conference field featured Montana, Idaho State, Portland State and Eastern Washington. The Grizzlies defeated the Bengals by 11 strokes, the Vikings by 14 strokes, the Eagles by 17 strokes.

It was Montana's 10th team title in program history, the fifth time a championship has come on a course in Missoula.

"All those teams are good teams who will be battling in the Big Sky. It was fun to see us compete. Was it clean? No, but winning's hard, and they won," said coach Jimmy Mee.

"We made fewer mistakes than we've been making, and that's the goal of the fall. It's going to be fun to see how far we can improve by the time the spring championship season rolls around."

Bar-Or took a three-stroke lead over Ong to the Missoula Country Club's final two holes. She bogeyed the par-3 17th but still had a two-footer for the win on 18. Her putt burned the edge.

Ong went into the tournament's final hole down two strokes but birdied before Bar-Or's par miss to complete the two-stroke swing.

Bar-Or becomes Montana's first tournament winner since 2021 and only the third freshman in program history to claim at least a share of a championship.

"She had an awesome tournament. The one putt didn't go in but I think she is going to take it the right way and use it as motivation to continue to get better," said Mee.

"Winning golf tournaments is hard. You're never not going to have nerves doing it. The more you can put yourself in contention and figure out how to deal with those nerves, the better we're going to be."

Montana shot rounds of 295 and 299 to close out the tournament, the first time since the 2025 Big Sky Conference Championship the Grizzlies went sub-300 in consecutive rounds.

Bar-Or's 70 for Monday's second round was matched on Tuesday by Johnson's 1-under 70. She had five birdies on the day, four on the back nine.

Johnson's 70 was her best collegiate score and came 24 hours after opening the tournament with an 81 on Monday morning.

"I think she learned a lot through the first two rounds of what she can do and what she can't do," said Mee. "It was cool to see her put it all together that quickly.

"When she got into trouble, she got herself out of trouble and just played solid golf. It was fun. She knows that's the headspace she needs to play in."

Freshman Ellie Sticha, playing as an individual, shot rounds of 84, 81 and 80 to tie for 21st.

Montana won't play again until wrapping up its fall season at the French Broad Collegiate Invitational in Arden, N.C., at the end of October.