Garner leads Cougars to fourth-place finish

CHANDLER, Ariz. – Lea Garner shot a solid final round 74 to lead the BYU women’s golf team to a fourth-place finish at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic on Wednesday.

A strong team effort fueled the Cougars to a final round 301 (+13), the third lowest score of the day among the 19-team field. BYU finished the tournament in fourth place with a 54-hole total 936 (+72), marking their best finish of the season.

“It was a good day,” BYU head coach Carrie Roberts said. “We started off good and held it. Lea was awesome. We felt like we were due for a good round and that was it. It’s nice to move up three spots.”

Boise State took home the title going 37-over-par on the tournament, 19 strokes better than runner-up Xavier. West Coast Conference foe Santa Clara finished in 14th place at 94-over-par.

Garner had her best round of the tournament making one birdie and 14 pars to shoot a two-over 74. Garner played consistent golf throughout the entire tournament going 11-over-par to tie for eighth place on the individual leaderboard, a new career best. Her eighth place finish marks her second top-20 finish of the season after tying for 13^th place at the BYU at Entrada Classic.

Junior Selu Fotu matched Garner’s strong final round contributing one birdie and 14 pars of her own to card a two-over 74. Fotu had a strong tournament, showing steady improvement each round. She shot 19-over-par through three rounds to tie for 27^th place.

Despite going five-over-par on the first eight holes, senior Amanda Keith had a resilient finish, making birdie on hole 9 followed by nine straight pars on the back nine. She shot a third round 76 (+4) and completed the tournament tied for 25^th place at 18-over-par.

Junior Annika Kahaiali’i had her best round of the tournament, making one birdie and 12 pars to shoot a five-over 77. Kahaiali’i went 26-over-par through three rounds to tie for 52^nd place in the individual standings. Sophomore Lauren Atkinson shot a final round 82 (+10) and finished the tournament in a tie for the 83^rd spot at 34-over-par.

Coming off of back-to-back top-five finishes, the Cougars will look to carry their momentum into the West Coast Conference Golf Championships on April 15-17. Follow the tournament live from Bremerton, Wash. at golfstat.com.

Individual Scores

Place	Player	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total Score
T8	Lea Garner	77	76	74	+11
T25	Amanda Keith	82	76	76	+18
T27	Selu Fotu	83	78	74	+19
T52	Annika Kahaiali'i	80	85	77	+26
T83	Lauren Atkinson	85	83	82	+34

Team Scores

Place	Team	Score
1	Boise State	+37
2	Xavier	+56
3	Portland State	+60
4	BYU	+72
5	Colorado State	+74
T6	Northern Arizona	+75
T6	Montana	+75
8	UTEP	+78
9	Sacramento State	+84
10	Montana State	+89
T11	Utah Valley	+90
T11	Wyoming	+90
13	Weber State	+93
14	Santa Clara	+94
15	Eastern Washington	+99
16	Seattle	+102
17	Northern Colorado	+103
18	New Mexico State	+117
19	Southern Utah	+123