Women's Golf suffers some growing pains at Ptarmigan

FORT COLLINS -- Northern Colorado Women's Golf struggled a bit in its first competition of the 2011-12 season.

The Bears, who finished third at last year's Big Sky Conference Women's Golf Championship, came into the clubhouse Tuesday in 19th place, with a 958 (+94) three-round team score at the Ptarmigan Ram Fall Classic at Ptarmigan Country Club.

UC Davis won the tournament with a team score of 873 (+9), while Illinois and Colorado (875) tied for second. Texas Tech (880), California (881) and Baylor (885) rounded out the top five.

Senior Chelsea Silvers fared the best for the Bears, carding a 4-over-par 76 Tuesday to finish in 231 strokes (+15) for the event and in a tie for 54th place. Silvers' sister, Carleigh, an All-Big Sky Conference honoree last season, shot 78-79-79 (236, +20) to tie for 67th.

Hannah McNeley (244, 87th), Jocelyn Thompson (253, 95th) and Emily Dougherty (254, 96th) also competed for Northern Colorado.

This year's Ptarmigan Fall Classic champion was UC Davis' Demi Runas, who shot a three-round total of 211 (-5), including a 6-under 66 in yesterday's first round. Runas was followed on the leaderboard by Baylor's Haley Davis (214) and Idaho's Kayla Mortellaro (215).