The Whitworth women’s golf team finished fourth at the Culturame Classic hosted by George Fox this last weekend.
The George Fox team finished first with Kelsey Morrison (151) finishing first overall followed by Kiana Lumanlan in second. Whitworth senior Emily Guthrie shot 87 in the first round, but closed strong with a 73 in the second round to finish fourth overall in the tournament. Freshman Yvonne LaCoursiere (85, 93) finished 19th overall and second for the Pirates while Chelsea Bayley (97, 84) finished 26th overall and third for the Pirates. Freshman Cindy Tapia (95,92) finished 31st overall and fourth for the Pirates.
“The weather was nicer the second day, but the fact that we hadn’t played this course before definitely made it harder the first day,” head coach Katie Fuqua said.
The team improved drastically the second day of play with Guthrie dropping 14 points between rounds.
“I don’t think consistency will be a problem for us going into conference,” senior Emily Guthrie said. “The course this weekend was hard, but course familiarity down the stretch will work to our advantage.”
The women may be feeling optimistic, but there is still a lot to work ahead as they prepare for the NWC Classic.
“Our short game needs to get better,” Fuqua said in response to what key factors will be for adequate preparation for the conference match.
Despite the significantly stronger performance of the women on the second day of the tournament, Whitworth (706) fell short to conference teams George Fox (632) and Willamette (662).
“There’s some pretty stiff competition in conference at this point, but we’re right in the top three if everyone comes ready to play,” Guthrie said.
Guthrie also feels that despite roller-coaster team performances like this one, the women will be mentally ready to compete at conference.
“We definitely learn every round we play what we need in order to get better,” Guthrie said. “There was no discouragement in the women after day one and we thus progressed a lot after day two.”
This was the last tournament for the women before the NWC Classic on Oct. 27-28 in Ridgefield, Wash.
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