Strong winds keep Women's Golf down in Cowgirl final

By JORDAN FREEMYER
UNCBears.com

CHANDLER, Ariz. -- A strong afternoon wind proved too much to handle for Northern Colorado Women's Golf on Wednesday as it shot a 318 (+30) as a team in the final round of the 2012 Wyoming Cowgirl Classic at Ocotillo Golf Resort.

The Bears finished 18th in the 24-team field with a three-round score of 933 (+69) -- 49 shots behind Iowa, who took the team title. Colorado State's Brianna Espinoza won the individual championship medal with a tournament-record 8-under-par 208.

"We, unfortunately, had a pretty late tee time today and played in some pretty strong wind this afternoon, especially the last few holes, which cost us some shots coming in," Northern Colorado coach Brandon White said.

The Bears teed off on hole No. 10 Wednesday, and the course layout made conditions especially tough on the last holes of the day -- something the Bears may need to contend with later this month at the Big Sky Conference Women's Golf Championship, which will also be held at Ocotillo.

"Nos. 7, 8 and 9 on this golf course played into a pretty stiff crosswind, which made it fairly difficult for us coming in, so I think we lost a few shots on some of the teams that were behind us coming into today since they had a little earlier tee time and didn't play quite as much into the wind," White said.

Despite their Wednesday struggles, the Bears managed to place two players in the top 50 overall in junior Carleigh Silvers and senior Ali Nelson.

Silvers, who shot an 8-over 80 Wednesday, finished in 229 strokes (+13) for the Classic and tied for 39th. Nelson shot a final-round 78 (+6) and had a 230 (+14) three-round score, good enough for a tie for 44th.

Senior Chelsea Silvers matched her sister's score, shooting an 80 (+8) Wednesday to finish tied for 58th with an overall score of 233 (+17).

Juniors Libby Avery and Hannah McNeley also shot 8-over 80s Wednesday to round out the Northern Colorado effort. Avery finished tied for 94th, with a score of 242 (+26) for the tournament. She was two shots ahead of McNeley, who finished tied for 99th, with a 28-over 244.

"On a positive note, I think that we got a lot of fair experience playing the course again the last three days to get us ready for conference here in about a week-and-a-half," White said. "We still feel confident that our best golf is yet to be played."