KAILUA KONA, Hawai’i — The University of Colorado women’s golf team is in ninth place after the first round of the 2022 Pac-12 Preview played at the Nanea Country Club on Monday.
The Buffaloes shot 6-over, 298, on the 6,449-yard par 73 Nanea Course. Colorado is two strokes behind No. 19 USC at 4-over, 296. Six of the eight teams ahead of Colorado after the first round are ranked in top 28 in the nation.
No. 22 Arizona State shot 17-under, 275, to lead after 18-holes, four strokes better than top-ranked Stanford and five over No. 13 Arizona.
Colorado’s top two golfers came from the No. 4 and No. 5 spots in the lineup. Freshman Morgan Miller and junior Hailey Schalk are tied for 22nd after shooting even, 73, just three strokes out of the top 10.
Miller got off to a fantastic start. Beginning on No. 14 with the shotgun start, she birdied her first three holes – all par 4s to quickly get to 3-under. Miller had back-to-back bogeys at the par-5, No. 18 and par-4, No. 1 and fell out of the red with bogeys at No. 8 and No. 9. She rallied back to even with her fourth birdie of the round at the par-4, No. 12.
Schalk, competing for the first time in four tournaments, started on No. 17, played even through the first three holes, then picked up birdies at the 342-yard, par-4, No. 2 and the 462-yard, par-5, No. 6, to get to 2-under. She had a double at No. 9, but held steady over the final five holes to finish at even.
Sophomore Natalie Vo is tied for 36th after shooting 2-over, 75. Vo dropped to 3-over after just two holes, but settled in and played the rest of her round in the red including birdies at No. 4 and No. 7.
Senior Issy Simpson is tied for 46th at 4-over, 77. Sophomore Lauren Gooding is in 59th at 8-over. Gooding ran into trouble early and found herself at 10-over before bouncing back with three birdies in a five-hole span down the stretch.
“Overall tee to green our team did well,” Colorado head coach Anne Kelly said “We just couldn’t seem to get the birdie putts to drop. We definitely need to convert a few more birdies and try to eliminate the bigger numbers.”
Arizona State has three individual golfers in the top six. Ashley Menne is the first-round co-leader with Arizona’s Julie Misemer at 7-under, 66. Stanford’s Rose Zhang and California’s Cristina Ochoa are one shot back at 6-under,…
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