Garner's 69 helps move BYU into top 5 at NCAA Women's Regionals

BATON ROUGE, La. — Led by a strong 3-under-par performance by senior Lea Garner, BYU women’s golf moved up the leaderboard on Friday into a fifth-place tie at the 2016 NCAA Women’s Regional being played at The University Club in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

“Lea (Garner) was awesome out there today and really everyone played very solid golf,” BYU head coach Carrie Roberts said. “Once we get into our groove, we’re a pretty good team. We’ll just stick to the game plan tomorrow and go out and play tough.”

The West Coast Conference Champion Cougars enter Saturday’s final round looking to maintain their current standing among the top six teams that will advance to the NCAA Championship on May 20-25 in Eugene, Oregon.

Garner led BYU’s solid team effort on Friday with a second-round 69 on the par-72 layout. Including her first-round 73, Garner is currently tied for third overall in the individual standings at 2-under 142, six shots off the pace set by Katelyn Dambaugh of South Carolina.

“Lea’s ball striking put her in position to make putts,” Roberts said. “She gave herself opportunities and she was able to capitalize on them.”

After playing the first four holes at even par, Garner posted back-to-back birdies on the par-3 fifth hole and par-5 sixth to create some strong momentum. With just two bogeys on the day, she added three more birdies the rest of the way on holes No. 9, No. 14 and No. 17.

Garner’s teammates Kendra Dalton (1-over 73), Brooklyn Hocker (2-over 74) and Alexandra White (2-over 74) all improved upon or equaled their opening round scores while Rose Huang (6-over 78) was just three strokes off her first-round pace.  Overall, Hocker is tied for 25^th individually at 4-over 148, followed by White (150), Huang (153) and Dalton (158). 

As a team, BYU put together a 2-over 290 score in Friday’s second round to improve eight strokes over the team’s 10-over 298 first-round score on Thursday. The Cougars moved up two places in the standings in a tie with Oregon for fifth place at 12-over 588. BYU is three strokes out of fourth place, held by Duke at 585, and six shots ahead of seventh place Arizona State (594). 

Led by Dambaugh’s course-record 66, South Carolina posted an 11-under-par total Friday to move ahead of Washington in the team standings at 9-under 567.  The Huskies follow at 575 with Florida in third at 580.  

The final round of the 54-hole event gets underway Saturday at 7:30 a.m. CT.  Fans can follow the tournament live. Links to live stats can be found on the BYU women's golf schedule page.

NCAA Regionals - May 6, 2016