Oct. 9, 2011
Despite trailing by 10 strokes heading into the final 18 holes, the San Diego State women's golf team staged a huge rally to win the Wyoming Cowgirl Desert Intercollegiate, flattening the field with a final-round 2-under 286 to win by 16 strokes Sunday at The Classic Club in Palm Desert, Calif. The Aztecs' 286 was the best 18 holes by any of the 14 other squads during the entire 54-hole tournament and was 19 strokes better than any other school in the final round. SDSU ended up beating second place and day-one leader Fresno State by 16 strokes and were ahead of host Wyoming by 35 strokes with a winning total of 24-over 888.
"The biggest difference for our team today is that they went out and played aggressive golf," said Leslie Spalding, who got her first victory in only her second event at the helm of the Aztecs. "They set a goal before we started the day and really stuck to it to get the job done."
The Aztecs had four players finish in the top 10, including medalist junior Christine Wong (Richmond, B.C.), who posted the low round of the tournament Sunday with a 4-under 69, including three birdies and no bogeys. The effort vaulted her from second to first place and gave her a four-stroke victory over Northern Arizona's Kaitlen Parsons at even-par 216. It was Wong's third career individual title, but first since the 2009-10 campaign.
Sophomore transfer Tessa The (Los Altos, Calif.) made good on her SDSU debut, utilizing a final-round 73 to vault from sixth into third place with a 6-over 222. Junior Gina Clark (Murrieta, Calif.) logged her second consecutive top-10 performance in as many chances this season by jumping from 20th into a tie for eighth with an even-par 72 to put her total at 12-over 228.
Freshman Amy Alston (Mission Viejo, Calif.) was the fourth San Diego State player to end up in the top 10, posting the team's third even-par or better round on Sunday with a 72. Alston made the biggest gain of any Aztec over the final 18 holes, going from 23rd into a tie for 10th with a 229.
Senior Malin Enarsson (Gothenburg, Sweden) was the only Aztec to drop on the leaderboard from the second to the third round, settling for 19th place at 16-over 232, while junior Alessia Knight, who was competing individually, remained in 47th place with her best effort of the weekend of 9-over 81.
San Diego State, which won a tournament title for the third year in a row, continues its fall schedule this coming Friday when it heads to the Stanford Intercollegiate, Oct. 14-16.
2011 Wyoming Cowgirl Desert Intercollegiate
Palm Desert, Calif.
The Classic Club - Par 72, 6,144 yards
Results Through 54 Holes
Team Scoring (Top 5 teams out of 14)
1 San Diego State 297-305-286-888 (+24)2 Fresno State 295-297-312-904 (+40)3 Wyoming 301-315-307-923 (+59)4 CS Northridge 304-320-313-937 (+73)5 USF 316-318-305-939 (+75)
Individuals (Top 3 Individuals out of 84)1 Christine Wong, SDSU 74-73-69-216 (E)2 Kaitlen Parsons, NAU 76-72-72-220 (+4)3 Tessa The, SDSU 74-75-73-222 (+6)
Other San Diego State GolfersT8 Gina Clark 75-81-72-228 (+12)T10 Amy Alston 77-80-72-229 (+13)T19 Malin Enarsson 74-77-81-232 (+16)T47 Alessia Knight* 82-83-81-246 (+30)* = Competed as an individual