Las Vegas tournament causes fits for women’s golf team
Brett Medeiros / Staff Writer
The UNT women’s golf team didn’t fare too well in the entertainment capital of the world as the team finished last in a field of 18 teams in the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown.
Colorado State, the team that finished in 17th place, finished nine strokes ahead of the Mean Green.
“We need to use this week as a real incentive, because it’s pretty close to embarrassing,” head coach Jeff Mitchell said. “They were trying out there but sometimes you get to the point where you’re trying too hard, and it makes it difficult to get into a positive attitude out there.”
This was the first time this group has ever visited the Stallion Mountain Golf Club. The team’s experience in Las Vegas didn’t start off too well when the practice rounds before the tournament were cut four holes short due to late scheduling. Because of the shortened practice round, UNT went into the competition without seeing the final four holes of the course.
Last season the short game caused trouble for the Mean Green, but in Las Vegas, the fairways in regulation are what hindered the teams low score capabilities.
“I don’t even know how many penalty shots we had,” Mitchell said. “There were a lot of golf balls that found the water. That is very unlike us. We usually hit the ball very well.”
Indiana took home the team title with a combined three round score of 894. UNT finished the tournament 60-strokes behind with a three round score of 954.
UNT started out the tournament with both freshman Georgina Mundy and sophomore McKenzie Ralston shooting under 80 in the first round, but with the course par at 72, their first round scores still put them behind from the start.
After shooting a 10-over par (+10) in the first round, junior Chaslyn Chrismer turned it around with a 5-over (+5) in the second round and a 4-over (+4) in the final round putting her tied for 59th overall individually, the best on the team.
“I’m hopeful that we can go into San Antonio next weekend and just try and take a good, positive attitude towards it and learn from what happened this week,” Mitchell said.
No UNT player cracked the top-60 individual performances over the weekend.
In the last round of the tournament, the wind gusted as high as 30 m.p.h.
“We just did not compete very well this weekend, and we didn’t handle the wind at all,” said Mitchell. “We couldn’t get away from the emotional part of the game. The golf course won this round.”
Players were not available for comment.
The team’s final tournament of the fall season will be the Alamo Invitational held in San Antonio.
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