Women’s golf finishes sixth in Tempe

The No. 10 Arizona women’s golf team finished in sixth place at the PING/ASU Invitational yesterday in Tempe after carding a three-round total of 888 (24-over-par).

The tournament host, No. 2 ASU, won the event in convincing fashion after carding a total 13-under 851 that beat second-place UCLA by 22 strokes.

Arizona head coach Greg Allen said the finish was “”decent”” given the level of competition the team saw Friday and Saturday.

“”We competed in a pretty solid field this weekend,”” Allen said. “”After how we struggled in the first two rounds, it is certainly not a bad place to be. We could have easily finished in ninth or 10th if we would have come out and struggled in the last round.””

Junior Mary Jacobs led the Wildcats after shooting an even-par 216 in the tournament, good enough for the 11th-place slot on the individual leaderboard.

“”It was a great tournament for Mary,”” Allen said. “”I certainly saw some great things at times from everybody. It is just a matter of all five playing well at the same time, and I think we are close to that.””

Sophomore Adriana Zwanck, who was the individual champion in last year’s tournament, finished the event carding a 5-over 221, tying for 21st place with junior teammate Alison Walshe.

Walshe and Zwank, who are ranked invidually at No. 18 and No. 52, respectively, finished just two strokes out of the top 20.

“”I think everyone kind of had a round they would like to get rid of,”” said Walshe, who carded a 5-over 77 in the first round. “”We began the tournament with some struggles, but we finished off playing pretty good. We didn’t do as great as we would have liked to, but we didn’t do nearly as bad as we could have.””

– Ari Wasserman

Men’s golf host National Invitational Tournament

The No. 27 Arizona men’s golf team hits the links today and tomorrow to host the National Invitational Tournament at the Omni Tucson National Golf Club. Two rounds are being played on the par 72, 7,094-yard course today, with the final 18 holes slated for tomorrow. Action begins at 7:30 a.m. each day.

“”Sometimes playing at home is an advantage and sometimes it’s not because of the expectations,”” UA head coach Rick LaRose said. “”Sometimes there’s a little more pressure when you’re playing at home.””

And the most pressure will lie within the Wildcats’ consistency.

Seniors Brian Prouty, Nathan Tyler, Josh Wilks and Josh Esler and freshman Pedro Oriol make up the lineup for the Wildcats.

“”They’re the guys that are playing the best right now,”” LaRose said. “”We’ve done that for the last two or three tournaments, put the current best players in the lineup. We’re hoping that the chemistry works and we can get the lineup to gel.””

Tyler and Wilks came out on top for the Wildcats last time out in the Oregon Duck Invitational on Mar. 26-27, tying for sixth with a 3-over 219.

“”I think this is an important tournament – not just for me individually, for all of us,”” Tyler said.

The competition

Of the 15-team field, six teams are ranked in Golfweek’s top 25: No. 8 Nevada-Las Veags, No. 9 UCLA, No. 16 Texas A&M, No. 18 Tulsa, No. 20 ASU and No. 22 Duke.

– Lance Madden