Sacramento State hosted the NCAA Western Regional Preview on Monday and Tuesday at the Lincoln Hills Golf Club. Nineteen teams competed in the Invitational to get a feel for the course to be used for the NCAA Western Regional Championship on May 8-10.

The No. 12 nationally ranked women’s golf team from the University of Denver clinched the team title victory at the preview with a score of 876, a full 24-stroke lead over second place winners, University of Oregon. Fresno State took third place with a score of 904. The Hornets tied for 14th place with a score of 930 alongside Cal Poly.

Amy Eneroth from Washington State placed first overall among the individual scores with a posting of 216, a mere stroke ahead of Cathryn Bristow from Oregon State and Alice Kim from UC Davis, who both tied for second place. Kim competed individually from the Davis team.

Among the Hornets, Heather LeMaster led the team with a score of 231 to finish in 37th place. Senior Kim Coppin and freshman Samantha Saffold tied for 54th with a posting of 254, senior Erica Yoshino brought in a score of 237 to finish 66th, and sophomore Brooke Green tied for 79th with a score of 241. Competing individually, senior Emily Longcrier (243) and junior Annie Becker (250) came in 86th and 98th, respectively.

All three rounds of the preview took place on the Orchard Course of the Lincoln Hills Golf Club. The Orchard Course is a par-72 course that stretches over 7,042 yards of rolling terrain punctuated by native wetlands. Having been carved out of the surrounding hills, the 18 holes offer surprising challenges found in the subtle variance of the slope gradients to give the impression of level and even ground, the illusion accentuated by carefully placed water hazards.

Many of the holes, most notably the 18th hole, were like this and frustrated, most golfers’ attempts to finish the holes on par as underpowered putts failed to sink the ball.

The weather did not help the conditions of the course either. Cold weather that delayed the opening round due to frost on the field gave way to chilly winds that blew away the overcast. The second round of the first day of the invitational saw players cursing weather forecasters for their prediction of rain for the beginning of the week and wishing for sun block.

But golf coach David Sutherland would not identify the weather or the course layout as excuses for the team’s performance.

“I’d have liked them to attack the course aggressively and have some fun. But it was difficult,” he said.

Sutherland also said that the biggest problem the team needed to work on was a lack in consistency for scoring. Individual scores ranged from the low 70s and 80s with none of the players able to find a mean average. A player would score in the 70s in the first round, in the 80s in the second round, and go back down to the 70s by the third round, and vice versa.

He said he hopes to improve on that before the Big Sky Championships on April 21-23 at Phoenix, Ariz.

“We want to be more confident and more aggressive when we go into the Big Sky Conference,” he said.

Before then, the team will compete at the NAU Preview on Thursday, also at Phoenix, Ariz.

Justin Tejada can be reached at [email protected]