The UVU women’s golf team opened their season after a four-month break by competing this past weekend in the Red Rocks Invitational in Sedona, Ariz. The team was tied for sixth place after the first round and slipped a bit in the final round Sunday before finishing in 10th place overall, their best finish in a tournament this season.
“The top three looked really good on the first day,” head coach Sue Nyhus said, “but then there’s a little bit of rust we had to shake off to be able to finish the tournament. So there was a little bit of rust, but there’s a lot of potential.”
The Wolverines had three players perform well at the tournament: freshman Lynn-Marie Nagel, junior Jordyn Dougal and sophomore Celeste Gish. Nagel finished the tournament in 10th place after she shot a first round 78. She then followed it up with a 75 in the final round Sunday to finish with a total of 153. This was Nagel’s first top-10 finish of her career. Dougal and Gish finished the tournament in 37th and 42nd place, respectively. “Lynn–Marie finished in the top 10, which is a very good for us,” Nyhus said. “She had two very solid rounds, and Jordyn and Celeste had a good round each and that made a big difference.”
Nyhus’ focus for the team heading into the season is to help the players gain experience. “Because the team is so young, the main goal is to get them as much competitive experience as we can so that they can grow and learn and get better so that we can do better than we have done before,” she said.
Nyhus’ long-term goal for this season is to be able to have the team be able to compete and finish second or third in the conference championship at the end of the season.
The Wolverines will be competing in two upcoming tournaments. The first will take place over spring break holiday March 16-17 at the Bucknell Invitational in Las Vegas. The following week they will compete in the BYU Classic in St. George, March 19-20.
