The Whitworth women’s golf team took third place last weekend at the Northwest Conference Championship. Junior Emily Guthrie placed first individually after a strong second day of competition.

“We didn’t come out top team, but we really just had a lot of fun playing golf,” head coach Katie Fuqua said.

The Pirates finished Saturday in third place, five strokes behind nationally ranked George Fox University.  Whitman College completed the day in the lead by just one stroke.

Guthrie led the Bucs Saturday, tying for fourth place individually. Freshman Nicole Lomax was in seventh and senior Elizabeth Martin tied for 11th place individually.

The Bucs improved their team score on Sunday, but not enough to overcome the competition ahead of them. Whitman maintained the lead for the championship and automatic NCAA Division III tournament bid. George Fox finished second and Whitworth rounded out the top-three. Fuqua was proud of the performance.

“The girls never gave up,” Fuqua said. “Everybody improved on their back nine. If you have a tough front nine it’s hard to improve on the back nine.”

Guthrie had an impressive second day. After falling behind four strokes on Saturday, she improved her score by six strokes to win the individual competition. She pulled out the victory by one stroke, beating George Fox’s Kelsey Morrison who is ranked second nationally.

“Playing well and just putting it all together at the end [made me proud],” Guthrie said. “Being able to win was awesome.”

Fuqua was also proud of Guthrie’s performance, especially mentally.

“Emily did a really great job of staying in the moment and not really letting anything get to her,” Fuqua said. “She had a plan written out and she stuck to it.”

Lomax and Martin finished 11th and 14th overall, respectively.

In general, the Bucs were satisfied with their performance, but anxiously await next year’s season.

“Hopefully next year we’re going to be even stronger,” Guthrie said. “[But] this year was a lot of fun and we’re thankful for the end results.”

Contact Corina Gebbers at [email protected].