BYU golf: Garner leads Cougars, team in 13th

TARZANA, Calif. -Lea Garner shot a combined 13-over-par during the opening two rounds of the Bruin Wave Invitational to lead BYU to a 13th place standing on Monday.

BYU shot an opening round 320 (+32), followed by a second round 326 (+38) to finish the day at 70-over-par. The Cougars currently stand nine strokes behind 12th place Denver (+61) and have a 12 stroke advantage on 14th place Hawaii (+82).

Garner led all Cougars on the day going five-over-par in the first round to shoot a 77 and eight-over-par in the second round to shoot an 80. She currently stands tied for 29th place.

“Lea’s solid,” BYU head coach Carrie Roberts said. “She’s a straight ball hitter, so she doesn’t really put herself into many hard spots. It’s a hard golf course. We’ve been playing a lot of hard golf courses this semester.”

Sophomore Lauren Atkinson also had a strong day for the Cougars. Atkinson converted 12 pars and one birdie during the second round to finish with a six-over-par 78. She finished the opening two rounds at 16-over-par tied for 43rd.

Senior Amanda Keith finished close behind Atkinson shooting a first round 81 (+9) followed by a second round 80 (+8). Keith is currently tied for 47th place at 17-over-par.

The Cougars resume play Tuesday at El Caballero Country Club with tee times set to start at 7:30 a.m. PST. Follow Tuesday's third and final round on golfstat.com.

Individual Scores

T29 Lea Garner 77, 80, +13

T43 Lauren Atkinson 82, 78, +16

T47 Amanda Keith 81, 80, +17

75 Selu Fotu 80, 90, +26

79 Maria Yacaman 92, 88, +36

Team Scores

1 UCLA +7

2 Southern California +15

3 Arizona +23

4 Pepperdine +35

5 Oklahoma State +40

6 Oregon State +46

7 Long Beach State +50

8 San Diego State +55

9 New Mexico +58

10 Washington State +59

11 UNLV +60

12 Denver +61

13 BYU +70

14 Hawaii +82

15 New Mexico State +88

Chris Scheitinger is a student at Brigham Young University studying Public Relations. Contact him at cscheitinger@gmail.com