Some of the best collegiate golfers in the nation will descend on Durango and Hillcrest Golf Club next week when the Fort Lewis College women’s golf team plays host to the NCAA Division II West Regional tournament Monday through Wednesday.
“We’re excited to have this,” FLC head coach and Hillcrest PGA assistant golf professional Guy Begay said. “This is arguably the biggest, if not the biggest, golf tournament in the Four Corners region when it comes to women’s golf. We’re going to have 66 players, of which probably close to 30 percent will be international players.”
Dallas Baptist University, the top-ranked team in the region, is the strong favorite to win the tournament.
In 11 tournaments during the 2017-18 season, the Patriots have never finished outside the top three. Their only third-place finish was at its first tournament of the season back in September. Since then, DBU has won seven titles, including the West Regional Preview, which DBU sophomore Addison Mitchell won with a 1-over-par 243, in September at Hillcrest. The Patriots won by 16 strokes ahead of West Texas A&M.
DBU finished second the other three times, including a runner-up finish at the Division II National Preview, which Nova Southeastern University, located outside of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, won by six shots.
The Patriots are last year’s national runner-up. They were one shot back of Barry University for the title and only lost two players from last year’s team.
This year, DBU has four players with scoring averages lower than 75, led by sophomore Evelyn Arguelles. Arguelles, who qualified for the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open, is the fourth ranked player in Division II and was named the Heartland Conference Player of the Year ahead of teammate Ann Parmerter, who won the honor the previous two seasons.
Course conditions for the regional are near ideal after long hours put in by the maintenance crew at Hillcrest.
“We’ve put quite a bit of work in. It’s almost on par with the amount of work we put in for the Navajo Trail Open,” Begay said. “Hillcrest Golf Club and the maintenance crew have been doing a ton of work to get prepared the best we can to present this golf course as best we can after coming out of the winter. It’s looking pretty good now that we’re getting some water.”
The forecast calls for temperatures in the mid 70s to low 80s for the tournament, with cloudy skies Monday clearing to sunny skies with minimal wind Tuesday and Wednesday.
The course will play a bit different than what players saw at the Regional Preview.
The NCAA visited the course last week and set parameters for the tournament. The organization deemed the rough can’t exceed two inches in length, and the greens can’t run faster than 11.2 to 11.3 in the stimpmeter.
“As we know, these greens can get pretty slick,” Begay said. “We’re trying not to get Navajo Trail Open speeds going because the course can play very difficult.
“The NCAA set some parameters for how it’ll be set up. They came out last week and did a site visit, looked at the course and did all the course set up preparation – pin positions, tee box selection and stuff like that.”
The course will measure about 6,300 yards, roughly 300 yards longer than it was at for the Preview in September.
Twelve five-women teams and six individuals make up the tournament field. Fort Lewis College did not have a player qualify.
The teams and their regional ranking, as of April 26, are: Dallas Baptist University (1), California State-San Marcos (2), California Baptist (3), Tarleton State (4), West Texas A&M (5), Academy of Art (6), California State-Monterey Bay (7), Saint Mary’s (8), Saint Edwards (9), Midwestern State (10), Sonoma State (11) and University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (14).
The individuals and their schools are: Carolin Chang of California State-East Bay, Courtney Ewing of Colorado State University-Pueblo, Kaite Fort of Dixie State, Kate Goodwin of Oklahoma Christian, Imkeleen Meyer of Newman University and Jess Whitting of Rogers State.
Players will hit the course Monday morning with tee times beginning at 9:30 a.m. There will be 22 groups teeing off on Nos. 1 and 10, with 11 groups on each side. The final tee times are scheduled to go off at 11:10 a.m.
The top three teams at each of the four regionals, and the top three individuals not with a team, will advance to the national championships May 16-19 at the par-72 Bay Oaks Country Club in Houston.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
