Women's Golf Has Two Finish in the Top 10 at Ptarmigan Classic

Monday, September 14

Fort Collins, Colo.

All Day

University of Northern Colorado

Colorado State Rams Classic

Photo by: Darryl Webb

9/15/2015 3:48:00 PM | Women's Golf

By: UNCBears.com

Final Results

Fort Collins, Colo. – The Northern Colorado women's golf team saw action for the first time this fall, competing in the Ptarmigan Ram Classic, hosted by Colorado State.

It was a 54-hole tournament over the course of two days played at the Ptarmigan Country Club, a course designed by Jack Nicklaus, which measures 6,332 yards from the tees and has a par of 72.

The Bears finished 11th at the 17-team tournament shooting a 906 (+42 overall), the best finish of any UNC team at the event since joining Division I.

"We played pretty solid the whole tournament, especially yesterday," said head coach Stephen Bidne. "The team got off to a hot start which was nice. Obviously Amanda and Kayla played well and really left a few shots out on the course and could have had even lower rounds than they did. Our best golf at this tournament since I've been here has been a 301, and yesterday we shot 296 and 297, so the improvement is showing."

UNC was poised to make a stand in the Top 10, sitting 9th overall after the first two rounds in a field that featured three teams in the Top 50 in Cal, San Jose State, and Texas Tech, but dropped two spots in the final day, taking 11th.

"The wind really picked up today and unfortunately it started picking up on the hard holes," Bidne said. "It was just disappointing to see because the teams we were competing with played a little better in the wind than we did. We were right there with those Top 50 teams, but had some trouble with the elements."

Individually, senior Amanda Myers and junior Kala Keltz paced the team, both picking up Top 10 finishes, tying for 8th overall.

During Monday's 36-hole stretch, the senior came out firing. Myers picked up right where she left off during the 2014 season and took the tournament lead after round one.

After parring her first two holes of the day, she followed it up with back-to-back birdies on the 1^st and 2^nd hole. She played the next nine holes with six pars, two birdies, and a bogey and was on track to finish at -4 under.

Myers had a minor setback on the par 5, 14th where carded a double bogey, cutting her round down to -2 under, ending the morning 18 with a 70.

The afternoon round was just as consistent for Myers as she knocked in 13 more pars and three birdies for a 71 (-1) finish.

Tuesday's finale proved to be a tough one for Myers. She went into the clubhouse with eight bogeys on her scorecard, completing the Classic with a 79 (+7), making her +4 over for the two-day meet.

Keltz's tournament was a little more consistent as she shot a round of 72 (E) sandwiched in between rounds of 74 (+2) to also finish +4 over.

Keltz overcame adversity in her first round after starting Monday off with a double bogey. She battled back to record seven pars and one birdie, before getting into some more trouble.

The junior marked bogeys on four of the next six holes to be +5 over with three holes to play, but again she fought, tallying three straight birdies to cut her score down to just +2 over.

She remained under par for the majority of the afternoon round, sitting -2 under heading into the par 4, 12th hole. Keltz ended up marking bogey on the 12th and 15th before making par on the 16th to end the long day with a 72 (E).

In Sunday's final round, Keltz finished with a team and round-high, 16 pars and two bogeys, again shooting 74 (+2).

"The biggest difference between this year and last year is that the team has depth," said Bidne. "Everyone is competing and the hard work they're putting in at practice is showing, and it paid off today."

Second year golfer Christina Ferreira was next in line for Northern Colorado taking 59th out of the 90-member field finishing +17 over par.

Ferreira's best round came in Monday afternoon's session, signing off on a 75 (+3) which included 10 pars and three birdies. In rounds one and three the sophomore recorded a 78 (+6) and an 80 (+8).

Junior Baile Winslow and senior Nicole Okada completed the Ptarmigan Classic for UNC. Winslow finished 77th on the leaderboard, while Okada came in 81st place.

Winslow scored rounds of 77 (+5), 79 (+7) and 82 (+10), ending +22 over for the tournament.

Okada had a solid opening round of 75 (+3), but hit a road bump in the afternoon round walking off with an 86 (+14). She was able to do some damage control on the final day, coming back with an 80 (+8) to complete the two-day stretch at +25 over.

BYU ended up taking the team honors, shooting +12 over as team, winning by four strokes. Texas Tech's Sarah Brown was the individual champion, completing the classic at -2 under par.

Next up for the women's golf team is a trip to Oregon where they'll compete at the Portland State Rose City Classic on Sept. 28-29.

"We're just going to continue to focus on our short game. That's what we worked on all of fall so far and it's showing," Bidne said about his preparation for the next tournament. "There's going to be some big names at this next meet as well, so working on our putting and wedge game is going to help us get out of trouble if we ever get into it, marking bogey at most and saving a lot of pars as we did in this tournament."