BYU's women's golf team invited to the NCAA Western Regionals
Ogden, Utah--BYU's women's golf team easily won the Mike Farrell Invitational on Monday as BYU sophomore Carrie Summerhays shot a tournament record 144 to walked away with her fourth career victory.
BYU's 16-stroke win in Ogden was actually overshadowed by the announcement of their invitation to the NCAA Women's Western Regional Tournament to be held May 11-13 at Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, Arizona.
"This (qualifying for regionals) has been one of our main team goals this year," said BYU head coach Gary Howard. "We tried our best to preach patience so that we would be playing our best golf by the end of the spring. Our fall schedule put us in position to qualify for regionals and we continued to improve during the course of the spring without any major setbacks. We made improvement in some way with every tournament this year."
Howard credits his team's strong finish at the Utah Dixie Classic on April 3-4 in St. George as the tournament that qualified his team for NCAA regional competition.
"That tournament put us in regional contention and we continued to play well and improve while other schools had some big set backs," Howard said.
BYU was one of 24 teams teams from West of the Mississippi to be invited to the Western Regional Tournament. The Western region is the most difficult region to qualify from as 14 of the nation's top 24 teams come from the West, which includes the nation's top women's golf conference the Pac-10.
"That's how strong it is in our district to compete," Howard said. "I still think we have a chance to do fairly well."
The NCAA tournament will invite 11 teams from the west region and 11 teams from the east region to compete on May 24-27 at Sunriver, Oregon.
At the Mike Farrell Invitational, Summerhay's fourth career victory puts her into a tie for second place all time in career wins at BYU. BYU's Pam Miller holds the record as she collected six tournament wins during her career in the late 70's early 80's.
Sophomores Adrianne Gibby and Jessica Gardner played solid for the Cougars as well. Gardner shot a 79-78--157 for an eighth-place finish and Gibby collected her second top-five finish in a row after shooting 77-77--154 and placing fourth overall.
"This tournament was important for us to help us build confidence as a team as we prepare for regionals," Howard said.
MIKE FARRELL INVITATIONAL RESULTSBYU Individuals
1. Carrie Summerhays 73-71--144*
4. Adrianne Gibby 77-77--154
8. Jessica Gardner 79-78--157
11. Angela Bradford 83-77--160
15. Summer Pierce 81-810--162
15. Nicole Parry 84-78--162
19. Sunny Pendleton 84-81--165
* Tournament record
1. BYU 310-304--614
2. Weber State 316-314--630
3. Eastern Wash.324-312--636
4. Montana 325-314--639
5. Idaho State 328-326--654
