University of Oregon
Caves Valley Golf Course
Bristow Caps Duck Career in NCAA Finale
05/23/09 | Women's Golf
*Complete final results are available in the LINKS box to the right.
OWINGS MILLS, Md. ? University of Oregon senior Cathryn Bristow capped UO's ninth postseason appearance Friday in fourth and final-round action in the 28th annual NCAA Women's Golf Championships, hosted by Georgetown at the Caves Valley Golf Club.
In her final round as a Duck, Bristow tied for 96th overall (78-79-79-80-316), and Friday's round of 80 meant that all four of her rounds were within two strokes of each other on the par 72, 6,443-yard course.
“While I was playing I was trying to shoot a good score,” Bristow said, “and once the tourney was over, it dawned on me that it's over. I'm not too sad because I know I have so many memories that will last for years.”
On Friday, she claimed her second birdie of the tournament on the par-5 17th hole, parred 10 holes (#2, 5-7, 9, 11-14 and 16), bogeyed six holes (#1, 3, 8, 10, 15, 17) and double-bogeyed the fourth and 18th holes.
The Huapai, New Zealand entered the day tied for 87th overall in the 126-player field, while she was tied for 85th after Wednesday's second round and 60th after Tuesday's first round.
“I was disappointed with how I had played the previous three rounds, so I tried to go out and enjoy today,” Bristow said. “I got off to a reasonable start ? parred most of the first few holes, but a little mistake here and there can really cost you on this course and adds up quickly over time.”
To see Bristow's scorecard each round, click the following www.GolfStat.com link
http://www.golfstatresults.com//public/leaderboards/player/static/pdetail30777_1503.html
The entire field fared slightly better against one of the nation's toughest golf courses as seven players shot under-par Friday, compared with five in both Wednesday's and Thursday's rounds, and two in Tuesday's opener. UCLA's Maria Jose Uribe posted the tourney low 66 in the second round ? one of only four sub-70 rounds among the 502 rounds played all four days.
“It's a beautiful course and in amazing condition,” Bristow said, “one of the best I've ever played. The rough was pretty tough ? if you hit it sideways and got into it you could quickly get yourself in a pinch. The greens were rolling and were really challenging. You had to really had to think about where you hit your approach shot ? and if you missed it you had to be careful where you missed. I really enjoyed the course ? it was one of the hardest I've played ? and it made each player really fight to score well. You had to really zero in on every shot to produce a good score. Even the winning score seemed high.”
Overall on the individual leaderboard, Purdue's Maria Hernandez won by one stroke (74-72-72-71-289) after third round leader and USC freshman Jennifer Song suffered a double-bogey on the 18th and final hole and finished second (72-73-71-74-290).
Oklahoma State's Pernilla Lindberg climbed five positions the final day to finish third overall (74-72-76-69-291), two strokes ahead of Duke's Amanda Blumenherst (fourth-tie, 75-73-74-71-293) and returning national champion Azahara Munoz of Arizona State (fourth-tie, 78-71-72-72-293).
Team-wise Friday, No. 1 Arizona State fired a 291 for the second straight round, and with three players in the top 11 overall, the Sun Devils picked an opportune to take their first lead of the event en route to the win (302-298-291-291-1182) after they entered the day in second place, one stroke behind No. 4 USC.
No. 2 UCLA improved a position to finish second overall (296-293-304-297-1190), and was followed by the Trojans (third, 301-295-294-301-1191).
ASU's eighth NCAA team victory in school history meant that Pac-10 teams have now claimed 13 of the last 18 NCAA titles along with eight runner-up nods. League individuals have won 13 titles going back to the first NCAA championship in 1982 (including 12 of the last 20).
Other teams in the top 10 included No. 5 Oklahoma State (fourth, 303-297-309-290-1199) who carded the touney's low round Friday, No. 14 Denver (fifth, 294-304-309-299-1206), No. 11 Duke (sixth, 308-301-302-296-1207), No. 10 North Carolina (seventh, 299-301-306-304-1210), No. 3 Virginia (eighth, 305-302-301-304-1212), No. 13 Pepperdine (ninth, 312-298-302-301-1213) and No. 9 Purdue (10th, 306-301-311-298-1216).
Results for the rest of the 24-team field follow ? No. 6 Alabama (11th, 305-302-311-299-1217), No. 7 LSU (12th, 302-304-309-304-1219), No. 17 Michigan State (13th-t, 307-303-315-300-1225), No. 12 Wake Forest (13th-t, 303-300-318-304-1225), No. 15 Georgia (15th, 316-307-301-310-1234), No. 20 Arizona (16th, 310-305-314-306-1235), No. 24 Tennessee (17th, 307-313-306-311-1237), No. 27 TCU (18th, 314-316-301-307-1238), No. 22 New Mexico (19th, 311-314-307-310-1242), No. 29 Tulane (20th, 312-305-317-312-1246), No. 44 UT Chattanooga (21st, 316-307-305-320-1248), No. 18 UC Irvine (22nd, 320-316-312-301-1249), No. 38 Texas (23rd, 314-311-313-314-1252) and No. 26 Ohio State (24th, 323-311-314-310-1258).
Hole-by-hole results for each round are located at the www.GolfStat.com website at the http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/index.cfm?tournament_id=1503 URL address.
Bristow was one of two individuals that advanced from the West Regional two weekends ago with Alice Kim of UC Davis who tied for eighth overall Friday (74-75-70-76-295) and was the top individual advancer from the three regions.
Among other individual qualifiers, Central Florida's Stephanie Connelly (11th-tie, 72-74-75-76-297) and Louisville's Cindy LaCrosse (11th-t, 76-76-75-70-297) followed two strokes back, and other qualifiers included Wake Forest's Marina Alex (37th-t, 79-81-74-69-303) and Oklahoma's Kendall Dye (52nd-t, 82-73-76-75-306).
Bristow joined Johnna Nealy (85th, 307, 2005) and Leigh Hornung (82nd-t, 320, 1992) as the third Duck to qualify individually for the collegiate finale. Six Oregon squads have also qualified, and their placings follow ? seventh (1997), 11th (2000), 13th (1995), 14th (1994, '98) and 17th (1993).
Before the collegiate finale, Bristow had led UO in 11 of 27 rounds this season, and 45 altogether in 114 career rounds. Tournament-wise, she had paced UO in 17 of her 40 collegiate events. She owned three of UO's under-par rounds this season (4-under 68, 3-under 69, 1-under 70), and four more rounds of par, and three of those seven rounds of par or better came in the West Regional (69 (3-), 72 (par)) or Pac-10 Championships (70 (1-)) the past month. This week, she was ranked 64th nationally by Golf Stat and also stood 77th in the Golfweek rankings last week.
“Having Meredith and Renee (Baumgartner, Senior Women's Administrator and former coach) her supporting me was great,” Bristow said. “I want to thank them, and also Shannon (Rouillard, former head coach) for taking a chance on me and giving me a scholarship. My professors deserve a lot of thanks for working with our crazy travel schedule all season, and I also want to thank Jenny Leander who helped me academically, Stephanie Brooks our trainer, and all others in the department who worked with me.”
As a team, UO closed its season two weekends ago in the NCAA West Regional, and placed 12th (299-298-293-890) in the 21-team field, thanks to its third sub-300 score in the same tournament for the first time this spring that included a spring-best final round (293).
In its 14th regional appearance in school history, Oregon ended two spots higher than its pre-meet seeding and 11 strokes behind eighth place, the final NCAA team qualifying position. The final round also stood as UO's fifth straight sub-300 round of the spring and 15th in 30 overall in 2008-09 including the fall. Bristow (ninth-t, 72-74-69-215), who earned her NCAA invitation in a two-hole playoff held on the 18th hole, was joined in the regional by sophomore teammate Kendra Little (35th-t, 74-72-76-222), junior Felicia Eastick (43rd-t, 74-77-72-223), freshman Ashley Edwards (74th-t, 79-75-76-230) and junior Kate Hildahl (103rd-t, 84-82-79-245) on Arizona State's 6,230-yard Karsten Golf Course.
Earlier in the championship slate, Bristow and Little scored 10th- and 12th-place finishes in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships and helped the Ducks place seventh (312-295-294-901) and match their best finish since 1996 (sixth, while UO also took seventh in '00 and '08). Little and Bristow received All-Pac-10 Second Team and Honorable Mention nods, and the latter player was accorded honorable mention status for the second time (with the other coming in the 2005-06 season) after she was picked to the All-Pac-10 Second Team in 2008. She joined former great Duck Paula Patterson (1st-'97; 2nd'98; HM-'96) as the only Oregon players to ever garner three All-Pac-10 honors. Little joined Patterson as the only UO players to receive multiple first- or second-team acclaim.
“I've progressed so much as a player and a person,” Bristow said. “My golf has gotten a lot better and I've tried to improve in all areas. With all the people I've met and places I've gotten to go I feel pretty lucky to attend the University of Oregon. The facilities and the support were amazing. There's no one memory ? there's so many ? and it's hard to remember. If I was forced to pick one the (school record) 65 was special, the UNLV final round (in her tourney record score (208), and also winning my first collegiate tournament.”
“Looking ahead, I want to continue to play some summer tournaments in the U.S. and try to qualify for the U.S. Amateur in August. In the fall, I'll be in Eugene wrapping up my psychology degree, and the Q school is sometime in the fall, so hopefully I can keep playing in the U.S.”
Looking back over the season, the Ducks' eight-person roster from top to bottom was one of its most balanced ever as three different players led the squad in its 12 tourneys in 2008-09 ? Bristow (seven times), Little (five times), and sophomore Monika Graf (once). Edwards ranked top three on the squad in six of her seven tourneys including the Pac-10 Championships (25th-overall), and three others also ranked top-three on the squad in various events (Eastick, Hildahl and sophomore Erica Omlid).
Little opened the fall season in the Giustina Memorial Classic with her second career victory (69-73-73-215). In March, the Eugene native Little and Edwards took third and fifth in the Oregon Duck Invitational (221/224) ? UO's fourth and fifth top-five finishes of the season to go along with Graf's and Hildahl's third-place finishes in the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational and Giustina event last fall, respectively. Bristow ended her career as a three-time collegiate event champion with her victories from 2007-08 (1) and 2005-06 (2), and Eastick also won the 2007 Giustina Classic fall season opener.
Interim head coach Meredith Jones rounded out her second year with the Duck program after she served as an assistant coach in 2007-08. The Eugene native enjoyed a return to the collegiate finale this week after she helped Baylor to its first-ever NCAA trip in 2004. She was an All-Big 12 Tournament selection and a top-15 conference finisher all three seasons for the Bears, while as a prep, the three-time state champion helped Eugene's Marist High School to five state team championships.
FINAL ROUND RESULTS
23rd Annual NCAA Championships
Caves Country Golf Club (Host: Georgetown)
Owings Mills, Md.
Par 72, 6,443 yards
Friday, May 22, 2009
Team Results ? 1, Arizona State, 302-298-291-391-1182. 2, UCLA, 296-293-304-297-1190. 3, USC, 301-295-294-301-1191. 4, Oklahoma State, 303-297-309-290-1199. 5, Denver, 294-304-309-299-1206. 6, Duke, 308-301-302-296-1207. 7, North Carolina, 299-301-306-304-1210. 8, Virginia, 305-302-301-304-1212. 9, Pepperdine, 312-298-302-301-1213. 10, Purdue, 306-301-311-298-1216. 11, Alabama, 305-302-311-299-1217. 12, LSU, 302-304-309-304-1219. 13t, Michigan State, 307-303-315-300-1225. 13t, Wake Forest, 303-300-318-304-1225, 15, Georgia, 316-307-301-310-1234. 16, Arizona, 310-305-314-306-1235. 17, Tennessee, 307-313-306-311-1237. 18, TCU, 313-316-301-307-1238. 19, New Mexico, 311-314-307-310-1242. 20, Tulane, 312-305-317-312-1246. 21, UT Chattanooga, 316-307-305-320-1248. 22, UC Irvine, 320-316-312-301-1249. 23, Texas, 314-311-313-314-1252. 24, Ohio State, 323-311-314-310-1258.
Top Individual Results ? 1, Maria Hernandez, Purdue, 74-72-72-71-289. 2, Jennifer Song, USC, 72-73-71-74-290. 3, Pernilla Lindberg, Oklahoma State, 74-72-76-69-291. 4t, Amanda Bluemenherst, Duke, 75-73-74-71-293. 4t, Azahara Munoz, Arizona State, 78-71-72-72-293. 6t, Nannette Hill, Wake Forest, 72-71-79-72-294. 6t, Calle Nielson, Virginia, 75-76-71-72-294. 8t, Alice Kim, UC Davis, 74-75-70-76-295. 8t, Maria Jose Uribe, UCLA, 75-66-77-77-295. 10, Lisa McCloskey, Pepperdine, 74-69-78-75-296.
Oregon Individual Result ? 96t, Cathryn Bristow, 78-79-79-80-316.
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Players Mentioned
