Newren tied for first, BYU second at MWC golf tournament

ST. GEORGE — BYU's 27th-ranked women's golf team opened the 2006 Mountain West Conference Championship in second place while All-American Rachel Newren finished the first round tied for first place on Thursday at Entrada at Snow Canyon.

BYU was three-under after the first nine holes and led the tournament most of the day before No. 13 UNLV started to make a move on the back nine. With three holes to play, the Cougars were one-over-par and tied for the lead with the Rebels.

Unfortunately for BYU, Entrada's most challenging holes just happen to be 16, 17 and 18, and the Cougars went 11-over-par on the last three holes to finish at 12-over for the day. That left the Cougars in second place behind UNLV, which went two-over-par on those same holes and finished at three-over-par.

"We made a few critical errors coming in on a tough golf course," BYU head coach Sue Nyhus said. "It put a damper on what could have been a great round."

Despite a difficult finish, the Cougars are still in great position. All season long, BYU has finished tournaments better than beginning tournaments.

Two weeks ago on this same course at the Dixie Classic, BYU's opening round was 15 strokes higher than the 300 they scored in the MWC Championship's first round. At the Dixie Classic BYU made a run on the final day and overcame a 16-stroke deficit to nearly pull off the upset of the Rebels. BYU hopes to make another comeback in the next two rounds with the goal of earning their first Mountain West Conference title in 14 years.

Newren was having an outstanding round and was four-under-par through 15 holes. She finished double-bogey, bogey, bogey, which dropped her into a tie for first with three players from UNLV and one from New Mexico.

Close behind Newren was sophomore Juli Wightman, who was even at the turn and finished three-over and tied for seventh place. Fellow sophomore Ashley Childers had a strong day and finished four-over par and tied for 11th place while Alexis Edwards was five-over-par and tied for 15th place.

The Cougars lead third place New Mexico by three strokes while fourth-place San Diego State is 10 strokes behind BYU, followed by Colorado State, TCU and Wyoming.

Team standings

    
            

        	
		
        
                
1. UNLV           291    +3
    
            

        	
		
        
                
2. BYU            300   +12
    
            

        	
		
        
                
3. New Mexico     303   +15
    
            

        	
		
        
                
4. San Diego St.  310   +22
    
            

        	
		
        
                
5. Colorado St.   311   +23
    
            

        	
		
        
                
6. TCU            312   +24
    
            

        	
		
        
                
7. Wyoming        321   +33