Arizona women’s golf team opened up the 2015 season finishing third (+28) in the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes, Calif., on Tuesday. The Wildcats shot 880 total strokes as a team and finished in second place amongst the Pac-12 Conference schools behind USC, which finished second overall. The Wildcats overcame a flaky start on Sunday and shot a 292 in each of the final two rounds.
Arizona ended the first round tied for seventh with a total score of 296 (+12). The only Wildcat to finish in the top 20 was Krystal Quihuis, who tied for sixth place after shooting a 70 (-1), 73 (+2) and 72 (+1).
Quihuis made two birdies on par-4 holes of the front nine; however, she bogeyed the par-4 fifth and remained at 1-under-par shooting an even score on the back nine for the first round.
“We struggled at first, but we picked it up and we finished off third, which I’m content with — even though the girls wanted to win,” Arizona women’s golf head coach Laura Ianello said.
Lindsey Weaver and Manon Gidali finished the first round with a combined score of 9-over-par, which was a sluggish start for the leaders of the Wildcats going into the second round on Monday.
Weaver ended the first round tied for 54th place after shooting 6-over-par for a total score of 77. Weaver struggled on the par-4’s in the first round, as the junior bogeyed seven holes and made par on four holes.
Gidali started off the 2015 season finishing the first round tied for 28th place after shooting a 74 (+3). Gidali bogeyed the first two holes, a par-4 and a par-3, but picked up the pace on the back nine, made a birdie on the 11th hole and only bogeyed once.
The second round was a different story as the Wildcats finished in fourth place while shooting a 292 (+8). The upperclassmen helped move the Wildcats up three spots on Monday.
Even though the Wildcats were moving up in the rankings, Quihuis shot a 2-over-par 73. With nine out of the top 10 overall players in the second round shooting worse in the second round than in the first, Quihuis was able to move up to a tie for sixth place.
Weaver started off the second round with an impressive front nine score of 1-under-par after making a birdie on the second hole. The back nine was much different, as the junior completed the last half of the round by making bogies on four holes for a total of 74 strokes (+3).
Weaver finished 9-over-par and moved up to a tie for 35th place.
Manon Gidali moved up to a tie for 25th after shooting a 75 (+4) in the second round. She double-bogeyed the second hole and made two birdies on the front nine. Gidali didn’t make a sub-par score after birdying the seventh hole.
The Wildcats once again showed improvement, as they matched Monday’s score on Tuesday by shooting a 292 (+8), which lifted them over ASU and into sole possession of third place.
Quihuis, Weaver and Gidali finished the tournament with a combined score of 21-over-par. Quihuis (70-73-72), Weaver (77-74-73) and Gidali (74-75-72) were also the only Wildcats to finish in the top 30 on the player leader board.
Arizona’s next event will be in New Orleans for the Allstate Sugar Bowl Invitational from Feb. 22-24.
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