March 29, 2006
TUNEUP FOR MWC: In a preview for next month’s Mountain West Conference Women’s Golf Championships, No. 26 New Mexico heads to St. George, Utah, for the BYU Dixie Classic. The 54-hole tournament gets underway Monday at the Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club (par 71, 6,300 yards). The teams will play 18 holes each day. Live stats will be available daily at www.golfstat.com. The MWC Championships will be held on the same course Apr. 20-22.
THE COMPETITORS: The 19-team field at the Dixie Classic includes three top-30 teams in No. 10 UNLV, the 26th-ranked Lobos and No. 30 BYU. Also participating are Boise State, Cal-Davis, Colorado State, Eastern Washington, Idaho, Idaho State, Iowa, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, Portland State, San Diego State, Utah Valley State, Weber State and Wyoming.
UNM TRAVELING PARTY: Lobo head coach Jackie Booth has the same five, very young golfers competing: sophomores Giselle Claux and Alexandra Phelps and freshmen Mikaela Backstedt, Py Bengtsson and Morgan Grantham.
HAWAI’I REVIEW: The 24th-ranked Lobos finished in second place at the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational at Kaneohe Bay, Hawai’i earlier this month. New Mexico trailed only No. 14 Tennessee in the 12-team field that competed at the par-71 Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course.
UNM finished 54 holes at 42-over 894, 38 shots behind the Volunteers. Red-hot Tennessee claimed the top four spots in the individual standings to run away from the rest of the field. UT’s Marci Turner shot a 7-under 64 in the final round to take medalist honors at 3-under 210.
The Lobos were led again by freshman Mikaela Backstedt, who finished fifth at 5-over 218. It’s the sixth top-10 finish out of seven collegiate tournaments for the Swedish native. Backstedt shot 1-under 71 in the final round. Despite closing with a 77, sophomore Giselle Claux had the best finish of her Lobo career. She had a 9-over 222, good for eighth place.
Freshman Py Bengtsson tied for 12th at 12-over 225. Sophomore Alexandra Phelps was at 17-over 230, tying for 26th, while freshman Morgan Grantham tied for 43rd at 25-over 238.
PERFECT A.P.R. FOR LOBOS: The New Mexico golf team was one of 595 NCAA Division I women’s squads – in all sports – that produced a perfect 1,000 Academic Progress Report. The NCAA released the latest two-year APR data on March 1, 2006.
FALL REVIEW: New Mexico claimed two second-place finishes, a third and a sixth in four fall tournaments. The Lobos opened the season at the Ptarmigan/Ram Fall Classic played at the Ptarmigan Country Club in Fort Collins, Colo. UNM finished second to Baylor at 874 after firing a 4-over 292 on the final day. Ashley Rollins shot a final round 69 (3-under) to finish in fourth place at 2-under 214. Freshman Mikaela Backstedt tied for 10th at 2-over 218 followed by fellow Swedish freshman Py Bengtsson in 14th place at 4-over 220.
UNM hosted the 27th Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational at the University of New Mexico Championship Course in late September. Third-ranked Pepperdine shot a final round 5-under (287) to finish at 3-under 873, edging unranked Texas A&M by two shots. The Lobos finished third at 6-over 882 followed by No. 14 UNLV (883) and
24th-ranked Ohio State (886). The Lobos carded a 2-over 294 in the final round and were within one shot of the lead before losing a few strokes down the stretch. Backstedt finished fourth at 4-under 215.
At the Price’s Give ‘Em Five Intercollegiate played at the New Mexico State University Golf Course in Las Cruces, Backstedt birdied the first playoff hole to win the individual title.
Backstedt became the first freshman in the history of New Mexico women’s golf to win a tournament and the first Lobo, regardless of classification, to claim a title since Katrina Leckovic captured the 2003 UNLV Invitational.
Playing in just her third collegiate tournament, Backstedt and the University of San Francisco’s Jessica Potter, each finished 54 holes at 3-under 216. Backstedt, who shot a 1-over 73 in the final round, set up the winning birdie by knocking her approach shot within eight feet on the par-4 10th hole. Potter made par.
As a team, 15th-ranked UNM tied host New Mexico State for second place at 893, two shots behind champion Missouri.
The final tournament was at The Landfall Tradition in Wilmington, N.C. The two-time defending champion Lobos moved up one spot to finish in sixth place against a tough field.
Playing with three true freshman in the lineup, the Lobos had their best round of the tournament on the final day – a 13-over 301 – to end at 65-over 929. Fifth-ranked Purdue scorched the course with a 2-under 286 on the final day to outdistance the field, beating 13th-ranked Wake Forest by 17 stokes.
Backstedt led UNM again. She shot a 3-over 75, providing a 54-hole total of 7-over 223, good for a tie for eighth. True freshman Morgan Grantham, playing in her first collegiate tournament, recorded the Lobos’ low round of the final day. Grantham shot a 2-over 74 in the final round, finishing at 19-over 235 and in a tie for 29th place.
FRESHMAN PHENOM: Arguably one of the top newcomers in women’s collegiate golf, freshman Mikaela Backstedt has turned in a debut that has been nothing short of stunning. The Hollviken, Sweden, native is currently ranked 21st in the nation by Golfweek magazine with a rating of 72.09. She is the No. 2 golfer in the Mountain West Conference with a scoring average of 72.24 and was named MWC Golfer of the Month for September and October.
Even more remarkable is that Backstedt has returned from an injury that could have proven career threatening. She suffered a broken left thumb before Christmas after dropping a weight on her hand in a Pilates class. The injury required surgery to have three pins inserted. Backstedt did not compete in the first tournament of the spring, the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, but she returned for the Wildcat Invitational.
Backstedt is on pace to annihilate the Lobo freshman scoring record of 74.62 set by Ashley Rollins in 2003-04.