Cougars Finish Sixth in Rainbow Invitational

HONOLULU -- Three BYU players post their personal best competitive scores to assist BYU in a sixth place finish of 17 teams in Hawaii's Rainbow Invitational.

Sophomore Margaret Gibby led the Cougars in the final round with a personal best of 72 and also tied for an 11th place finish individually (74-76-72--222). Freshmen Symantha Mendenhall and Danielle von Arnim also posted their personal best with 75 and 77 in the second round. Mendenhall finished tied for 28th (78-75-75--228), and von Arnim finished tied for 66th (85-77-78--240). Sophomore Natalie Newren finished strong with a final score of 73 for a top 20 finish (75-77-73--225). Senior Jessica Gardner posted a 76-74-78--228 to tie for 28th.

"We have had a lot of steady play this week," said BYU head coach Sue Nyhus. "From tee to green we've had solid golf, but we're still struggling around the greens and also coming in strong on those last few holes."

BYU shot 298 in the final round for a tournament total of 303-302-298--903 only two shots back of a top 5 finish. California won the tournament with an 18 shot lead over UCLA. Stanford's Kim Rowton won the Rainbow Invitational individually with 72-72-71--215.

"The difference between our team and the best teams is chipping," Nyhus said.

Statistics show that the top NCAA ranked teams get up-and-down around the greens 60 percent of the time while BYU holds an average of 40 percent.

"In this upcoming week we're going to work really hard on our short game to get that average down in our next tournament."

BYU heads to UNLV's Las Vegas Founders tournament Nov. 11-13 to play at Anthem C.C.

Fin. Team Scores

1 California, U. of 285-296-298--870

2 UCLA 295-301-292--888

3 Stanford Univ. 302-297-294--893

4 New Mexico, U. of 309-297-292--898

5 San Francisco, U. of 305-308-288--901

6 Brigham Young Univ. 303-302-298--903

7 New Mexico State 303-306-300--909

8 Long Beach State 307-306-300--913

9 UC -- Irvine 315-304-305--924

10 Texas A&M Univ. 313-311-302--926

11 Kansas, U. of 308-314-308--930

12 Oregon, U. of 302-314-315--931

13 Northern Arizona U. 317-313-302--932

14 Texas Tech Univ. 310-310-314--934

15 San Diego State Univ. 308-318-311--937

16 Southern Illinois Univ. 327-302-314--943

17 Hawaii, Univ. of 326-319-318--963

Fin. BYU Players Score

T11 Margaret Gibby 74-76-72--222

T21 Natalie Newren 75-77-73--225

T28 Jessica Gardner 76-74-78--228

T28 Symantha Mendenhall 78-75-75--228

T66 Danielle von Arnim 85-77-78--240