Idaho women’s golf wins first invite of year, weather cuts play short
Sometimes, Mother Nature doesn’t like cooperating with athletic events.
This was the case when the Idaho women’s golf team competed at the Delta Gamma Challenge Monday in New Braunfels, Texas.
File photo by Nathan Romans | Argonaut
Senior Kaitlyn Oster follows through a shot in the fairway Sept. 22 during the WSU Cougar Cup. Oster and the Vandals won their first first tournament of the spring season Monday at the Delta Gamma Challenge in New Braunfels, Texas.
Play was cancelled partway through the third round because temperatures were in the mid-30s and wind gusts were around 35 mph. Only the scores from the first two rounds were counted in the final score.
The Vandals tied with Arkansas-Little Rock for the lead after shooting a two-round, 7-over-par 575. However, Idaho was declared the sole winner based on its No. 5 golfer Kendall Gray’s second round score, which was the tiebreaker.
“We felt confident going into this tournament,” Idaho coach Lisa Johnson said. “We believed we could win. But to see the team be able to pick up where we left off in the fall and be competitive was wonderful.”
Idaho, which was picked to win the Big Sky Conference in the Big Sky Preseason Coaches Poll, lived up to the hype by winning the Delta Gamma Challenge — its first event of the year.
The Vandals couldn’t have asked for a better first round as they held the team lead and senior Leilanie Kim held the individual lead.
Idaho led after the first round with a 3-under-par 281 and Kim shot a first-round low 4-under-par 67.
Kim cooled off in the second round carding a 3-over-par 74. She finished with a 1-under-par 141 to tie for fourth with Houston’s Raegan Bremer.
“Leilanie’s a long ball striker so that was to her advantage,” Johnson said. “We had worked a lot on her putting the last week or two and definitely saw the results of all that hard work in the first round. She made a lot of putts.”
Two other Vandals finished in the top 15. Junior Kristin Strankman shot an even-par 71 in both rounds for a 142 to tie for sixth and sophomore Amy Hasenoehrl tied for 15th by shooting a 72 and 73 to finish with a 3-over-par 145.
Senior Kaitlyn Oster tied for 24th and freshman Kendall Gray tied for 47th to round out the scoring for the Vandals.
Idaho will hope for better weather when it competes at the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational March 10-11 in Honolulu.
Houston finished third and host Texas State took fourth at the Delta Gamma Challenge. Texas State’s Lora Assad, Youngstown State’s Aislynn Merling and Arkansas-Little Rock’s Sabrina Bonanno tied for first by posting a 2-under-par 140.
“I was extremely impressed with how we looked,” Johnson said. “We looked fundamentally strong going into that tournament.”
Garrett Cabeza can be reached at [email protected]