Coming off its first win in three years, the San Diego Statewomen’s golf team felt it could beat anybody.
But perhaps the task at the Las Vegas Founders CollegiateShootout, which ended yesterday, was too big. Shooting a 913, theAztecs earned a ninth place finish out of 15 teams against thetoughest field of the year.
They were without the services of one of their top players, seniorSandy Kim. Because of a severe back injury, it was the first time inher career at SDSU she missed an event.
Still, the team managed to improve each day and even earned itsbest finish in the final round, despite an extremely wet course – itrained all day yesterday.
“It was really cold out there and the rain made it hard to be outthere all day,” head coach Felicia Brown said. “But we still playedpretty solid.”
Heather MacRae was one of the few bright spots for SDSU, tying forsixth with a 219 – only six strokes off the leader and well ahead ofNew Mexico’s Kailin Downs and Christina Spence. Downs and Spence wereranked 21st and 24th in the nation respectively, according toGolfweek.
“I was happy with how I played despite it pouring all day andmissing Sandy,” MacRae said.
The field was by far their most competitive of the year with all16 teams ranked in Golfweek’s top 100, including eight in the top 50.Topping the list was defending tournament champion No. 4 New Mexico.The list also included Oklahoma (11), Tennessee (22), UNLV (25) andKent State (27).
The Aztecs had shown noticeable improvement from the first tosecond round – jumping 14 strokes from Monday’s 314 to a 300 on thenext day.
However, the jump did not reflect on the scoreboard as they wouldhave liked, only moving from 10th to ninth place.
Several mistakes on the back-nine holes by Megan Mulhaupt andJaime Oliver prevented a bigger move in the standings as they bothfinished 9- and 8-over, respectively.
Mulhaupt went on a consecutive streak of bogeys totaling six onholes 10 through 16 that ended with a birdie on the 17th.
MacRae was able to compensate for some of the damage, turning her2-over on the front nine into a 3-under on the back. She finishedwith a 1-under 71 and was tied for eighth overall for the day.
But the performance by SDSU in round one was rusty to say theleast.
Shayna Miyajima, Jaime Wilson, Oliver and Mulhaupt all finished7-over or worse on Monday.
The team’s 314 finish on the day was 26 shots off the leader NewMexico.
MacRae shot the low for the Aztecs – a 3-over 75 that had her in20th overall.
This was the final tournament for SDSU this fall, with playscheduled to resume in February. And obviously, the break will be aperfect time for the Aztecs to get healthy and continue to practicefor the road that lies ahead, as their sights are set on making amark on the national scene.
