The Montana State women’s golf team finished the second round of the Bobcat Desert Classic in Goodyear, Arizona on Apr. 14, holding second place with a score of 7-over 295 for the day and a cumulative total of 582 over two rounds.
This performance keeps Montana State among the leading teams at the tournament as they head into the final round. The team entered Tuesday with a two-stroke lead but now sits four strokes behind Seattle University, which leads at 578. North Dakota State and Utah Tech are tied for third at 586, while Wyoming is fifth with a score of 588.
Head coach Brittany Basye said, “Obviously, we struggled a little bit today on the golf course – didn’t make as many birdies and had a few higher numbers – but that’s okay. It’s the second round, and we have one more day to finish it off. The girls had a good practice after we get done playing today, and we just have to go out and keep fighting pedal to the metal, finish off this tournament, and get ready for conference. Sailor had a great round today with 1-under par, and she actually had a dunk shot from 120 yards on full force and ended up with an eagle, so that’s pretty cool. But all around a group effort. I’m proud of them for not giving up. They kept patient, we’re learning more and more about our games every day, and we just have to keep fighting. Any time we can give ourselves the opportunity to be in a position to win a golf tournament is a good thing. Obviously, we didn’t play as well as we wanted today, but we have one more round. Tomorrow they’re going get after it, and we’re going keep playing, learning, and fighting until the very end.”
Sailor Graham led individually for Montana State on Tuesday with her best round of the event so far: she shot one under par (71), including an eagle on hole four that started her run of eleven consecutive bogey-free holes along with birdies on holes two and eight.
Other notable performances included Norah Seidl’s even-par (72) round highlighted by three birdies; Lauren Greeny finishing strong with four birdies during her three-over (73) effort; Ashleigh Wilson opening her card without bogeys through nine holes before ending at two-over (74); Eva Heinz making three birdies en route to shooting four-over (76); Maddie Montoya also carding two birdies during her six-over (76). Lauren Nau completed her individual round in seventy-nine strokes.
With eighteen holes left in competition set for Wednesday morning’s shotgun start at Golf Club of Estrella—where live scoring will be available online—Wilson and Greeny are tied for eleventh place overall at one over par; Graham follows closely behind in fifteenth; Heinz stands nineteenth; Montoya and Seidl share twenty-third place; Nau is tied fifty-third.
