Boise State women’s golf spent three days adjusting their pace at Badger Invitational due to weather concerns, closing the tournament in eighth place and carding a team score of 892 (+28) in Madison, Wisconsin.
The Broncos shot 295-295-302 in the 54-hole event.
Day one, Boise State played on schedule with 18 holes before cold, muggy conditions and drizzling rain pushed the rest of the tournament ahead of schedule. The Broncos played 27 holes on the second day and finished out back nine on day three.
“The course there was very different than anything that we play here,” fifth year Leia Chung said. “It was a lot of needing to adjust pretty quickly.”
Boise State held steady throughout the first two rounds, totaling +7 for each before doubling their stroke count in round three to +14.
Head coach Kailin Downs pointed to inconsistent putting as the main thing holding the team back from moving further up the leaderboard.
“I told them that’s a huge positive because they’re putting themselves in position to score better for the future rounds,” coach Downs said. “We just need to clean up the little things.”
The Broncos tied the tournament runner-up Northwestern for second most pars as a team, tallying 178, just shy of tournament winner Iowa State’s 181.
“I’m not sure we hit the most greens, but we scrambled and we fought for pars,” Teal said.
Leia Chung and Teal Matsueda were the Broncos’ standouts throughout the course, each picking up their first top-25 finishes of the season.
Chung’s 14th place overall finish led her team shooting a 219 (+3). This marks her 21st top-25 finish, tying for third in the program’s history.
Chung’s steady start this season follows a post-injury bounce-back last season. Her determination and spirit earned her the Kim Moore Spirit Award and a spot as an NCAA Regional Individual Qualifier among other conference recognitions.
“It’s pretty hilly,” Chung said about the course’s tricky layout. “There’s a lot of physical endurance that leads to having that mental endurance to keep pushing through even when I feel really tired.”
Matsueda shot 222 (+6) to tie for 24th, marking the 17th top-25 finish of her career.
Senior Jillian Hui shot 10-over, followed by sophomore Callia Ward at 13-over. Senior Chloe Jang made her Boise State debut and shot 15-over after spending her first three seasons at Utah Valley.
With the first tournament behind them, the Broncos look forward to creating consistency and depth as the season progresses.
“We’ve gotten better over the last few years while I’ve been here,” Downs said. “The ultimate goal is what we’re working towards to get to April and compete for a conference championship.”
Boise State goes back on the road to play Sept. 21-22 at the Kalispel Invitational in Spokane, Washington.
