LITCHFIELD PARK, Ariz. — Biola Women's Golf entered the 2022 PacWest Conference Women's Golf Championship as the favorite, and that's where they remain following the first 18 holes at the Wigwam Golf Resort.
Head Coach Jane Carr's Eagles, currently ranked No. 25 in the Mizuno WGCA NCAA Division II Coaches' Poll, have four individuals inside of the top-13 and lead the field by five strokes. The end of play Monday marks one-third through the three-day, 54-hole championship.
Sami Penor was the low scorer for BU on Monday, carding a 75 to finish one stroke back of the individual leader Claire Shubin of Dominican. Penor's score was aided by her only birdie of the day, coming on hole number 18. She was the only one among the six tournament leaders to get a birdie on 18. It was not just any birdie either. It was probably the highlight of the day on the course.
"She started with a bogey and ended with an incredible 42-foot putt for birdie in front of a good number of spectators," said Carr. "It was an exciting putt to watch and a great way to end our day as a team."
The rest of Biola's first-round tally of 308 came from Brady Turnquist (76), Rachel Shaw (78) and Melanie Reyes (79). The Eagles' depth was again what led to its success, with just a five-stroke differential between its top scorer, Penor, and its excluded fifth scorer, Lauren Lee.
Second-place Academy of Art was the closest to the Eagles in margin, with eight strokes separating score one from score five. On average though, the difference between one through five was 10.8 strokes. The average score from the field was an 80.46. Biola was the only school to have all five players shoot better than the group average.
Turnquist was leading the tournament overall with a score of just +2 through 15 holes. She had birdies on holes seven and 10 and was playing at even-par on the back-9 before putting up back-to-back bogeys on holes 17 and 18. She finished day one tied for seventh, but just two strokes off the lead.
Biola and Holy Names end day one as the only two teams with more than one student-athlete hanging around inside the top-7 scorers. Penor and Turnquist are two of the four players in the tournament field currently ranked by Golfstat.
"Brady is a quiet leader on and off the course. She inspires all of us to be better. She is a fighter out there and has no give up in her," said Carr. "Hole eight she left her shot on the right side of the fairway leaving a 110-yard shot over a very tall tree guarding the green. It was an amazing shot over the tallest part of the tree. Those are the moments when Brady really steps up. She has the courage and confidence to pull off some incredible shots because she really knows her game."
Melanie Reyes had a wild day one to finish as the fourth-best scorer for BU through 18 holes. Despite beginning her round with a birdie on hole one, she was eight-over on the front nine due to three tough holes of two or more over par. Her first nine holes had three pars, one birdie, two bogeys, two doubles and a triple.
She managed to right the ship in the second half of the day, carding seven holes at par or better, including the only eagle shot by any player at the tournament. The Eagle came on a par-5 14th hole. She shot three-under on the final five holes of the day to set herself up well for Tuesday. Reyes was one-under overall on par-5s on Monday, which was tied for the best scoring among anyone on par-5s. Penor also led a similar category. She shot even-par on par-4s to lead the field there. Par was the name of the game for Penor on day one as she tied for the tournament-lead with 13 holes at even.
Just like Turnquist and Reyes, Rachel Shaw had two birdies on her scorecard on day one. Those two both came on the front nine and as a result she shot two strokes better on the front than the back. Her 38 and 40 combined for a 78 to position her tied for 13th overall.
She had a relatively consistent outing, but will look to eliminate double-bogey from her vocabulary on day two as she had one of those on hole nine and another on holed 14.
Lauren Lee shot 40 and 40 to finish out in a tie for 16th with her round of 80. Look for her to shave some strokes tomorrow, too, as she shot 72-72 in her most recent tournament for BU.
"Today wasn't our best golf, but it was good enough for today," said Carr. "We will come back even stronger tomorrow."
Biola will be paired with Academy of Art and Dominican on Tuesday after both schools shot 313 on day one and are tied for second-place five strokes behind the Eagles. Everyone tees off of hole on once again, with Biola's tee times scattered between 8 a.m. and 8:40 a.m.
Follow the tournament scoring live at https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=25004.
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