Beavers In Hawaii For Pac-12 Preview
October 31, 2015 | Women's Golf
CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State women's golf team will conclude its fall season at the Pac-12 Preview, which will be held Monday and Tuesday in Kona, Hawai'i.
This will be the fourth and final tournament of the fall for the Beavers. They finished 17th at the Dick McGuire Invitational, second at the Rose City Collegiate and sixth at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational.
FIELD (12): Oregon State, Arizona, Arizona State, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington and Washington State.
COURSE: The tournament will be held at the par-73, 6,392-yard Nanea Golf Club for the third consecutive year. The member's only golf course, built in 2003, is the creation of financiers George Roberts and Charles Schwab. The clubhouse at Nanea was constructed to resemble Kona Island's five volcanoes, while the course, designed by David McLay Kidd, was carved from a mountainside on the Big Island with lava rock lining the far stretches of playable area before it drops into the Pacific Ocean.
BEAVERS' LINEUP: Oregon State will go with a lineup of seniors Ashlee Pickerell and Chelsea Saelee, sophomores Haley Nist and Hannah Swanson, and freshman Olivia Benzin, the same group that has played in the previous three tournaments.
FORMAT: Two-day, 54-hole tournament with 36 holes on Monday and 18 holes on Tuesday. The top-four individuals from each five-member team with the lowest scores for each 18-hole round constitute the scoring members for that given round.
TEE TIMES: There will be a shotgun start each day at 8:30 a.m. HT (11:30 a.m. PT).
LIVE SCORING: There will be live scoring for the tournament on golfstat.com.
LAST TIME OUT: Ashlee Pickerell and Haley Nist each shot a 2-over 74 in the final round of the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational last month to help Oregon State move up the leaderboard and finish in sixth place.
The Beavers were in ninth place in the 13-team field after 36 holes of play on the first day, but they shot a 15-over 303 at the par-72, 6,039-yard Sahalee Country Club in the final round to finish sixth with a 44-over 299-306-303--908. They made a big push on the final nine holes, coming in at 1 over, to finish ahead of No. 15 Colorado.
No. 23 San Diego State held on to win the two-day, 54-hole tournament with a 28-over 892, while California finished third with a 33-over 897 and No. 15 Washington was third with a 35-over 899.
Bianca Pagdanganan of Gonzaga claimed medalist honors with a 1-over 69-73-75--217.
“I am really proud of how this group battled today against a great field and tough golf course,” Oregon State head coach Sammie Chergo said after the tournament. “We made the turn at 14 over but then shot 1 over on our back 9. That shows great competitive spirit and grit by this group. They played with a ton of pride and passion for Oregon State.”
Pickerell had her best round of the tourney on Tuesday to skyrocket up the leaderboard into a tie for 22nd place with a 12-over 76-78-74--228.
Nist also vaulted up the leaderboard, finishing in a team-best tie for 12th place with a 9-over 76-75-74--225.
Olivia Benzin continued a hot start to her freshman career with a tie for 20th place after carding a 10-over 74-76-76--226.
Chelsea Saelee finished in a tie for 29th place with a 13-over 73-77-79--229 and Hannah Swanson wrapped up play with a 34-over 84-80-86--250 to finish in 66th place.
LAST YEAR AT THE PAC-12 PREVIEW: Oregon State wrapped up its fall season a year ago by finishing in 11th place at the Pac-12 Preview on Hawaii's Big Island.
The Beavers concluded the two-day, 54-hole tournament with a 49-over 300-318-307--925 at the par-73, 6,392-yard Nanea Golf Club. It was the fifth and final event of the fall season for Oregon State, which began with a team title at the Oregon State Invitational at Trysting Tree Golf Club in Corvallis in mid-September.
Anica Yoo fired her best score of the Pac-12 Preview, a 1-over 74 in the final round, to move 11 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for 34th place with a 12-over 78-79-74--231. She was steady throughout the day, after struggling a bit in the first two rounds, with a birdie on the par-3, 146-yard eighth hole, 15 pars and two bogeys.
Chelsea Saelee was the Beavers' top player on the individual leaderboard for the second straight tournament, as she posted an 8-over 73-79-76--228 to finish in a tie for 29th place. She dropped back-to-back birdies on the par-4, 346-yard 16th and par-3, 191-yard 17th holes, to go with four bogeys for a 2-over 75 in the final round.
Haley Nist finished a tie for 31st place after carding an 11-over 75-78-77--230. She didn't get a birdie in the final round but had nothing worse than a bogey and 14 pars for a finishing 4-over 77.
Ashlee Pickerell finished in a tie for 52nd place with an 18-over 74-82-81--237 and Hannah Swanson shot a 26-over 80-85-80--245 for sole 59th place.
Washington ran away with the team title with an 11-under 865 to easily finish ahead of UCLA (even-par 876) and Stanford (7-over 883). Alison Lee of UCLA held on to win medalist honors by a stroke over SooBin Kim of Washington, as Lee posted a 10-under 68-69-72--209 and Kim carded a 9-under 68-72-70--210.
