FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (September 25, 2022) – Facing a quick turnaround, the Northern Arizona golf team will compete at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic beginning Monday in Wolcott, Colo. The 20-team field will play 18 holes each on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at Red Sky Golf Club (par-72, 6,305 yards).
The Lumberjacks will tee off in five groups beginning with fifth-year
Ashley Croft at 10:50 a.m. on Monday. The first two rounds will start with tee times before a shotgun start will commence the third round on Wednesday.
"It's a great trip, a beautiful golf course and a great experience," said head coach
Brad Bedortha. "There will be a good field of teams and it'll be competitive and I'm going out there believing that if we play well, we can finish in the top six-to-eight teams. We didn't play to our abilities in Coeur d'Alene and it will be a quick turnaround, but we have the ability to go to a tournament like this and compete."
Like last year, the Golfweek Red Sky Classic will feature a highly competitive field with nine of the 20 teams finishing last season in the top 100 of the Golfstat National Rankings. Pepperdine is the highest ranked team of the group at No. 55. Additionally, there are four teams – including NAU – that concluded the 2021-22 season ranked between No. 100 and No. 120.
It will be NAU's third all-time appearance at the tournament and the Lumberjacks will be aiming to make another splash after tying for seventh last season in the weather-shortened installment. NAU shot 12-over par 588 (279-309) and wound up besting seven top 100 teams in last year's field.
The 'Jacks were tied for first after the initial round, shooting a school-record 9-under par 279 headlined by former Lumberjack
Elle Kocourkova's hole-in-one.
"We went out and hit good shots and made putts," Bedortha said of last year's first round in Wolcott. "We started off well that day and it was one of those days that everything was clicking early."
Fifth-years
Aleksandra Chekalina and Croft are the only two Lumberjacks in this year's lineup that competed at last year's tournament. Chekalina tied for 42nd at 5-over par 149 (71-78) and Croft, who will be making her 2022-23 season debut next week, was one stroke back in a tie for 48th at 6-over par 150 (73-77).
Chekalina will play in the No. 1 spot of the lineup after an outstanding start to her final season earlier this week at the Coeur d'Alene Resort Collegiate Invitational. Chekalina tied for eighth individually with her second-lowest career 54-hole score in relation to part at even-par 213 (73-68-72).
Chekalina will be followed in the lineup by freshman
Lizzie Neale, senior
Lorel Hayward, freshman
Ellena Slater and Croft. The top four golfers in the lineup will be playing their second tournament in a week after being part of the Lumberjacks' lineup in Idaho that placed 13th at 41-over par 893 (299-292-302).
Neale and Slater both made their collegiate debuts and tied for 56th at 13-over par 226. Neale posted rounds of 73-75-78, while Slater shot 77-73-76. Hayward tied for 67th with a three-round score of 16-over par 229 (77-76-76) in her first tournament of the season.
Meanwhile, Croft – a four-time all-conference honoree – will open up her final campaign. Croft entered her fifth season sixth in program history in scoring average in relation to par (75.85), tied for fifth with 15 par or better rounds and fifth with 210 birdies. Last season, Croft was the team's high finisher at the NCAA Albuquerque Regional and averaged 76.84 per round.
"I'm excited to give this team the opportunity to go back to this tournament," Bedortha said. "Our freshmen got their feet wet in terms of competition and did some good things and struggled in some areas (in Coeur d'Alene), but at the end of the day, I know we're going to be better off with the depth of this team."
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