FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 5, 2022) – The Northern Arizona golf team will open the spring season on Monday at The Valley Invitational, co-hosted by CSU Bakersfield and Cal Poly. The tournament begins with 36 holes on Monday with the final 18 holes slated for Tuesday at the Bakersfield Country Club (par-72, 6,000 yards). Both days will begin with 9 a.m. MST shotgun starts.
"We're very much looking forward to getting back to competing," said head coach
Brad Bedortha. "We've had three weeks of practices and four qualifying rounds. It'll be good to get the rust off. We've never been to this tournament, so we're excited to see what it's all about. There'll be good teams there and I'm comfortable and confident that we have five players who can compete and perform well."
The spring-opening tournament in Bakersfield, Calif. will be the Lumberjacks' first competition since hosting The Clash at Boulder Creek at the end of October. It will also be the first of five tournaments this spring ahead of the Big Sky Championship at the end of April.
NAU goes into the spring following a highly successful fall season in which the Lumberjacks recorded three top 10 team finishes in four tournaments. The Lumberjacks concluded the fall ranked No. 98 in the Golfstat National Rankings.
The Valley Invitational will feature a 12-team field with five teams, including NAU, ranked in the top 100 nationally. Cal Poly, the defending Big West Conference champion, is the highest ranked team in the field at No. 69, followed by San Francisco (No. 89), Grand Canyon (No. 95), NAU and Hawai'i (No. 100). The Lumberjacks are the only Big Sky Conference team competing.
Cal Poly won the inaugural Valley Invitational last spring with a 44-under par 908 (303-305-300). Six of this year's 12 teams competed at last year's tournament.
The Lumberjacks, picked second in the 2022 Big Sky Preseason Coaches Poll, will be led by senior
Elle Kocourkova, who will compete at the top of NAU's lineup. Kocourkova shot an average of 74.91 during the fall, second on the team, and fired one of the best rounds in program history of 4-under par 68 at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic.
Kocourkova's 23 birdies only trail sophomore
Ekaterina Malakhova's 24 during the fall season. Malakhova, who also carded a 4-under 68 at the New Mexico State Aggie Invitational, holds the team's lowest scoring average of 74.55.
Also competing for the 'Jacks in Bakersfield will be seniors
Ashley Croft and
Aleksandra Chekalina and junior
Lorel Hayward. Croft and Chekalina averaged rounds of 76.36 and 76.91 respectively, while Hayward averaged 78.22 – more than three strokes better than her career average entering the season.
"This is the same group that we basically traveled with for the vast majority of the fall and for sure all of last spring semester," Bedortha said. "They are very comfortable together, they get along great and travel great. They have confidence in their teammates and they have confidence in themselves."
Fans can follow live scoring at The Valley Invitational on
Golfstat.
To stay up to date with the NAU golf team, follow the Lumberjacks on
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