Montana State University
Mountain Match Play
Bobcat Golf Begins Spring Action With Mountain Classic Match Play
2/9/2024 1:53:00 PM | Women's Golf
Cats fly to California for three-day tournament to kickstart spring season
BOZEMAN, Montana – Montana State golf heads to California this weekend to kickoff their spring slate of tournaments, participating in Mountain Classic Match Play at The Classic Club, jointly hosted by Boise State and Wyoming in Palm Desert, California.
Action begins Monday with a matchup against Big Sky foe Northern Arizona in the quarterfinals. The winner goes on to face the victor of Wyoming and Seattle U in the semifinals on Tuesday, while the loser will face the loser of that match. Competition will wrap up Wednesday with either a championship bout or consolation match.
The four teams on the other side of the bracket include Boise State, Portland State, North Dakota State, and St. Thomas.
Live results and the full bracket are available here.
Match play competitions will be composed of five singles matches, using USGA match play scoring. Each singles match winner will be awarded one point. Matches tied/halved will be awarded ½ point. The team match score will be determined by totalling the points for the five singles matches. The team with the most points will be the winner.
"Match play is a different ballgame, because we're focused on now we have somebody we're playing against," head coach Brittany Basye said. "We might have really bad holes, and it doesn't matter—we lose one point. We can come back on the next hole. Little different strategy. Mentally it's fun because they might hit their drive offline, well now you're like 'okay now I just have to get it in the fairway.' It changes the strategy a little bit. What I like about it as our first tournament is—there's really no expectations because we're not thinking about our total score, we're thinking about hole-to-hole, which is awesome. Coming out of the winter, it helps us because we're not so focused on the end result—we're focused on hole-to-hole."
The Bobcats will tee off at 11:21 a.m. PT/12:21 p.m. MT on Monday.
Montana State will roll out a lineup of No. 1 Scarlet Weidig, No. 2 Maddie Montoya, No. 3 Eva Heinz, No. 4 Hannah Boraas, and No. 5 Jordan Briggs.
It marks the third straight year that the Bobcats will participate in the Mountain Classic Match Play—last year, the Bobcats defeated Portland State in the quarterfinals, fell to Nevada in the semifinals, then fell to Boise State in the final consolation match, placing fourth overall.
"We played this golf course last year," Basye said. "Scarlet played it, Jordan played it, Maddie has played it. It's a fun golf course. It's a hard golf course, especially if the wind is blowing because it's out in the middle of the desert and can be tricky with some of the tight lies rolling into the water, but a fun golf course."
Montana State is coming off a stellar fall that saw them break several school records.
Led by the play of standouts Scarlet Weidig, Lauren Greeny, Maddie Montoya, and Eva Heinz, MSU twice broke the program record for 18-hole team scoring mark, first with a 10-under, 278, on the final day of the Timpanogos Collegiate Classic on September 12, then again just two weeks later with a 12-under, 276, at the Big Sky '54 for IX' Tournament on September 25.
At the five tournaments the Bobcats played this fall, they matched or broke what had been the existing 54-hole tournament score of 882 on three occasions. Montana State shot a matching 882 at the season-opening Timpanogos tournament, shattered the record with an 869 at the Big Sky '54 for IX', then turned in an 880 to close the season at The Clash at Boulder Creek.
Individually, redshirt junior Scarlet Weidig added on to her already stellar career accolades with an individual tournament win at the Big Sky showcase tournament in Saratoga Springs, Utah, the fourth win of her career to move her one behind Jen McGregor (1993-97) for most all-time.
Weidig turned in a record-breaking 54-hole score of 9-under-par 207 (67-69-71) to take home the trophy competing against every other Big Sky conference program while leading Montana State to a third-place team finish.
Her round of 67 in the opening 18 holes matched the program record and marked one of three occasions that 67 was achieved by a Bobcat this fall, joining Lauren Greeny's two rounds of 5-under 67 on September 12 and October 23.
Through five tournaments, Greeny and Weidig are tied for the team lead in stroke average at 74.20.
The youth movement for MSU also continued this fall, with Heinz and Boraas each shooting a 4-under 68. Those two now count themselves among the eight Bobcats in program history to ever shoot a 68 or better in a tournament round.
Montoya, a sophomore from Boise, Idaho, was consistent in the lineup for the Bobcats, shooting a 74 or better in 9 of 14 rounds and averaging 74.42 for her stroke average this fall.
The depth at the top of head coach Brittany Basye's lineup was on full display in the first round of the Big Sky tournament in Saratoga Springs, as four Bobcats finished below par, another program record. Weidig shot a 67, Greeny a 69, and Montoya and Heinz both turned in a 70 across an unforgettable afternoon.
#GoCatsGo
