Iowa women’s golf headed to Utah
The BYU Spring invite begins Monday.
Iowa sophomore Brett Permann tees off during the Diane Thomason Invitational at Finkbine Golf Course on September 30th, 2018.The Hawkeyes placed 1st overall.
March 14, 2021
Following a record-setting performance in mid-February at the Rebel Beach Invitational in Las Vegas, Iowa’s women’s golf team was excited to get back on the course and continue the momentum.
At the Rebel Beach Invitational, sophomore Lea Zeitler posted a second-round six-under-par 66, the lowest individual round in Iowa women’s golf history, the team shot a combined 284 (-4) in round two, the second-lowest team score for a single round in school history.
All signs pointed to another strong performance in the Hawkeyes’ next event: last week’s Wildcat Invitational in Tucson, Arizona.
Iowa’s performance was anything but strong.
The Hawkeyes had a last-place finish in the 16-team Wildcat Invitational field and zero players inside the top-20 individuals was a step back for a program head coach Megan Menzel said is on the rise. That came after finishing in fourth place as a team with three of the five Iowa players inside the top-20 in Las Vegas.
But the young Hawkeyes have an opportunity to rebound from the disappointing finish as they tee it up Monday and Tuesday at the BYU Spring Invite on the Championship Course at Sand Hollow Resort in Hurricane, Utah.
Iowa brings seven players to this week’s event. Freshman Klara Wildhaber and sophomores Morgan Goldstein and Jacque Galloway will compete in their third tournament of the season. They will be joined by senior Brett Permann, teeing it up for the second time this year, and junior Manuela Lizarazu, playing for the first time in 2021. Junior Dana Lerner and senior Sarah Overton will each compete unattached from the university as individuals in the field.
Last week, Wildhaber led the Hawkeyes with a three-round total of six-over-par 233 good enough for a tie for 32nd. She was the only Hawkeye to improve her score in each of the three rounds, concluding with an even-par 72 in the final round.
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Wildhaber posted a tie for 24th and a tie for fifth in the Hawkeyes’ two other tournaments so far this season.
This week’s 6,010-yard, par-72 layout — the shortest track the Hawkeyes have played this season — will provide plenty of scoring opportunities with shortish par-fours along with four par-fives.
When Iowa traveled to Utah last season, the Hawkeyes participated in the Entrada Classic hosted by BYU in St. George, Utah.
In its last appearance before COVID-19 cancelled the remainder of the season, the team put together its best finish of the season.
Three top-10 individual finishes by Galloway (tied fifth), Goldstein (tied seventh), and Zeitler (tied 10th) who is not playing this week propelled Iowa to a runner-up finish on the team leaderboard. Lizarazu and Lerner also played in last season’s finale.
North Texas was ahead of Iowa and host BYU rounded out the top three.
Both of those teams will tee it up this week.
After this week in Utah, the Hawkeyes’ western swing comes to a close as they will next play at the Chattanooga Classic in Tennessee on March 29. Iowa will then continue to the Indiana Spring Invitational and then the Big Ten Championships in Cincinnati at the end of April.
