April 21, 2012
The 45th-ranked San Diego State women's golf team surged into the lead early in the second round, but eventually dropped back into second place by the end of play Saturday at the 2012 Mountain West Championships. The Aztecs cut six strokes off their first-round score with a 13-over 301, and are currently five behind leader TCU at 32-over 608 with only 18 holes remaining in the three-day event at the par-72, 6,208-yard Wigwam Golf Course.
"We had a lot of good things happen today," said SDSU head coach Leslie Spalding said. "The back nine is definitely the most difficult part of the course with hard finishing holes that force you to keep your mental focus. Tomorrow will be a great challenge, because I think the last three holes are going to determine the winner. A good goal for us as a team is to break 300, and if we can get everyone to play at their best, we still have a shot."
Aztec junior Christine Wong (Richmond, B.C.) and senior Malin Enarsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) remain in the top five on the individual leaderboard. Wong, who was in a three-way tie for first entering day, was near perfect with 14 pars, a birdie and just one bogey through her opening 16 holes. She then had her only real blemish of the day, a double-bogey on the par-4 17th hole, and ended with another par for a 2-over 74. Wong dropped just slightly into second place at 2-over 146, trailing only TCU's Sanna Nuutinen, who carded the low round by any player at the tournament thus far with a 2-under 70 for the three-stroke advantage.
Enarsson had the best 18 holes by any Aztec in the second round with an even-par 72, highlighted by the field's only eagle, which came on the par-4 second. Enarsson actually began with a birdie on the first hole before the eagle put her at 3-under par. She then birdied both the sixth and seventh to get to 5-under, before giving three strokes back with three bogeys or the next four. Enarsson birdied the 12th hole and then had her only double bogey of the tournament thus far on the 13th hole to put her back to 1-under. She regrouped with four pars and one bogey to move her from fifth into a tie for third place at 3-over 147.
San Diego State freshman Amy Alston (Mission Viejo, Calif.) and junior Gina Clark (Murrieta, Calif.) cut two and three strokes off their first-round scores respectively, but each remained in the same place on the individual leader board in 15th and 25th place. Junior Alessia Knight (Bologna, Italy) was the fourth Aztec to improve in the second round, going even par over her final 11 holes to card an 80 and bump her up one slot into 31st with a 20-over 164.
SDSU is looking for its first top-three finish at the MW championships in the last 10 years on Saturday, as the tournament concludes with the third and final round. Play gets underway for the Aztecs again at 8:40 a.m. PT from the first tee, where they will be paired with TCU and Colorado State. Live results are available at golfstat.com.
2012 Mountain West Championships
Litchfield Park, Ariz.
Wigwam Golf Course - Par 72, 6,208 yards
Second-Round Results - 36 Holes
Team Scoring
1 TCU 304-299-603 (+27)2 San Diego State 307-301-608 (+32)3 Colorado State 310-306-616 (+40)4 New Mexico 310-307-617 (+41) UNLV 311-306-617 (+41)6 Wyoming 317-304-621 (+45)7 Boise State 312-312-624 (+48)
Individuals (Top 4 Individuals out of 35)1 Sanna Nuutinen, TCU 73-70-143 (-1)2 Christine Wong, SDSU 72-74-146 (+2)3 Malin Enarsson, SDSU 75-72-147 (+3) Manon De Roey, New Mexico 72-75-147 (+3)
Other San Diego State GolfersT15 Amy Alston 78-76-154 (+10)T25 Gina Clark 82-79-161 (+17)31 Alessia Knight 84-80-164 (+20)