Cougars fight for top ten in Las Vegas

LAS -- In the last tournament of the fall season, the BYU women's golf team hopes to improve from 15th place (+37) in the first round of the Las Vegas Founders Women's Collegiate Showdown, played Nov. 10-12.

"We realize we have to start out better," BYU head coach Sue Nyhus. "We're playing against top teams, so we have to step up our level."

The best showing from the Cougar lineup in the first round was freshman Rachel Newren. She led BYU tied at 36th with a 78 (+6), shooting a birdie and only two bogies in the back nine.

The Cougars' five-player lineup for the Showdown includes senior Nicole Newren, juniors Margaret Gibby and Natalie Newren and freshmen Alexis Edwards and Rachel Newren.

This year marks the second year of the Showdown, which was played for the first time in November of 2002 at Athem Country Club. The Showdown features five teams ranked in the top 30 and five individuals ranked in the top 50. BYU is currently ranked 44th.

"We just need to play our own game and not focus too hard on the fixing the little mistakes," Nyhus said. "This is our final tournament of the fall and we should be trying to do the best we can."

Last year, BYU moved up to a fourth place finish out of 15 teams in the Las Vegas Founders with a solid closing round of 301. The team's solid play was due to finishing strong on their last few holes.

The tournament features a standard 54-hole, with 18 holes to be played each day at UNLV's home course, the Anthem Country Club (par 72--6,194 yards). Each round will start at 8 am and score a four-of-five format.

The complete field includes: BYU, Colorado, Colorado State, Eastern Washington, Hawai` in, Kent State, Missouri, Nevada-Reno, New Mexico, Oklahoma, San Diego State, San Jose State, Tennessee and UC Irvine.