Garner top 20, BYU seventh-place tie after day one

BATON ROUGE, La. — Finishing in the top 20 after day one, Lea Garner helped BYU women's golf to a seventh-place tie at the NCAA Division I Regionals, Thursday.

"It was great to see our girls fight hard," BYU head coach Carrie Roberts said. "The wind came up on the second nine, which we played well in. The greens are the tricky part so if we can be confident and decisive we will score better."

The Cougars started off the day shooting 10 over on the back nine. BYU then turned it around and shot even par on the front nine. After the first day of the NCAA Regionals, the Cougars are tied for sixth place out of 18 teams.

Just six strokes separate fourth place and ninth place, while No. 4 Duke and No. 37 BYU are tied for seventh place with No. 48 LSU and No. 28 East Carolina at eighth and ninth, respectively. No. 10 Arizona State sits in front of BYU in sixth place. ASU shot 8 over in Thursday's round. 

Garner finished the first round tied for 15th place. She shot 1 over for the day, shooting 2 over on the back nine and then 1 under on the front. Garner birdied holes three, four and six in round one. 

Brookyln Hocker also birdied three holes on the front nine to put her at 2 over for the day. Hocker shot a 34 on the front nine and is tied for 25th place after 18 holes of play.

WCC Player of the Year Rose Huang is tied for 32nd place after Thursday's round. Huang started off the day shooting 3 over on the back nine. The freshman then shot even par on the front nine. Huang sits at 3 over for the tournament. 

Tied for 41 place, Alexandra White shot a 76 in round one. Starting on hole 10, White shot even par through hole 14. She finished at 1 over through the first nine holes. White finished the day at 4 over. Kendra Dalton shot 13 over on Thursday.

BYU women's golf will continue the second round of play at the NCAA Division I Regionals Friday. Pairings will begin play Friday morning. Fans can follow the tournament live. Links to live stats can be found on the BYU women's golf schedule page.

NCAA Regionals - May 5, 2016