May 8, 2006
The 23rd-ranked University of New Mexico women’s golf team has earned a berth in the NCAA West Regional. The 21-team competition begins Thursday at the Washington National Golf Club in Auburn, Wash. The University of Washington will serve as host. The Lobos are the No. 8 seed in the regional.
The top eight finishers from the West Regional will advance to the NCAA Championships May 23-26 at Ohio State. UNM is gunning for its 13th NCAA championship appearance since 1982. The Lobos’ last trip to the finals was 2004 when they tied for 15th at the Grand National Course in Opelika, Ala.
Live stats of the NCAA West Regional will be available at www.GolfStat.com.
THE COURSE AND FORMAT: Located in suburban Seattle, Washington National will play as a par-72 at 6,289 yards. The regional features 18 holes starting each day at 9:30 a.m. MDT. The final group tees off at 3:20 p.m.
First and second round pairings are determined by seed. The Lobos will play with No. 7 Stanford and No. 9 Washington Thursday and Friday. Following the second round, team scores will determine the final-day pairings.
UNM starts Thursday on the No. 1 tee at 9:40 a.m. It’s a 1:50 p.m. start on Friday from the No. 10 tee.
CHAMPIONSHIP INFO: The NCAA Championships is divided into three regionals and ends May 23-26 at the Scarlet Course at Ohio State. Each regional site hosts 21 teams, with the top eight in each region advancing. The other regional hosts are Wake Forest and Texas A&M.
WEST REGIONAL PARTICIPANTS: Arizona, Arkansas, Bradley, BYU, Denver, Georgia, Georgia State, Long Beach State, Montana, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Oral Roberts, Oregon State, Purdue, San Jose State, Stanford, UC Irvine, UCLA, UNLV, Washington and Washington State.
The West Regional features eight ranked teams, including No. 2 UCLA, No. 5 Georgia, No. 8 Purdue, No. 15 UNLV, No. 19 Arizona, No. 20 Stanford, No. 23 New Mexico and No. 24 Washington.
UNM TRAVELING PARTY: As has been the case during the entire 2006 spring season, Lobo head coach Jackie Booth will take the same five, very young golfers: two sophomores in Giselle Claux and Alexandra Phelps and three freshmen in Mikaela Backstedt, Py Bengtsson and Morgan Grantham.
FROM HEAD COACH Jackie Booth: “We’re very excited about advancing to the NCAAs again. (Former Lobo) Kristi Larsen played on Washington National as an individual in the 2002 national championships, so I’ve seen the course before. I think the course complements our style of play. Despite being so young, we have a very talented and determined team. I don’t think they would have accepted anything less than qualifying for regionals. Now we have our sights set on advancing to nationals.”
UNM’S NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY: New Mexico is making its 20th NCAA postseason appearance since the first showing in 1982. The only years the Lobos failed to qualify were 1986, `89, `90, `91 and `92.
Regional play was introduced by the NCAA in 1993 and UNM has qualified every year, a string of 14 straight appearances. New Mexico’s best regional finish is fifth at the North Carolina East Regional in 2001.
New Mexico has advanced to the finals 12 times, including six times (1993, `95, `96, `98, `01 and `04) in 13 tries since regionals were adopted.
Last year at the Central Regional in Lubbock, Texas, the Lobos got off to a great start. They were tied for second after shooting a 3-over 291 in the first round, the lowest single round for UNM in a regional. The good play did not last as the Lobos soared to a 332 on the second day and eventually ended in a tie for 13th place.
The only current Lobo to play in NCAA postseason competition is sophomore Giselle Claux. She finished 93rd at last year’s Central Regional at Texas Tech.
HEAD COACH Jackie Booth: New Mexico has qualified for NCAA postseason in each of head coach Jackie Booth’s nine seasons. The Lobos have advanced to the NCAA Championships three times under Booth: 1998, 2001 and 2004.
MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS (Apr. 20-22): The Lobos came close to a sweep, but in the end it was UNLV taking home most of the hardware at the Mountain West Confence Championships. The Rebels staved off New Mexico down the stretch to win their third straight title at the Entrada at Snow Canyon Course in St. George, Utah.
The neophyte Lobos put a brief scare into UNLV. Trailing by four shots after two rounds, UNM cut the Rebels’ lead in half early, but could never get any closer. New Mexico finished with a team total of 900 after shooting a 14-over 302 in the final round. UNLV was five shots better at 895. BYU was third at 907.
The chase for the individual crown was even closer. In a battle of freshmen, UNLV’s Da Sol Chung made birdie on the first playoff hole to defeat Lobos Mikaela Backstedt and Py Bengtsson. The trio finished 54 holes tied at 6-over 222. Backstedt and Bengtsson both made par on the extra hole.
The playoff was forced after Chung bogeyed 17 and 18 and Bengtsson also had a bogey 5 on the par-4 18th. Backstedt had a two-shot lead earlier in the day, but a mid-round swoon dropped her out of the lead. She finished with a 5-over 77.
Backstedt and Bengtsson were both named to the all-conference team while Backstedt joined Chung as co-MWC Freshman of the Year.
Backstedt started the day at 1-over for the tournament and got back to even after a birdie on No. 2. Leading the pack by two shots, she then dropped seven shots over an eight-hole span before making birdie on the par-4 15th.
UNM’s top three finishers were all freshmen as Morgan Grantham tied her collegiate low with a 2-over 74. She tied for 14th place at 230.
Sophomore Alexandra Phelps tied for 17th at 231. Fellow sophomore Giselle Claux had a three-round total of 236, tying for the 23rd spot.
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 diminuitive Hollviken, Sweden, native is currently ranked 25th in the nation by Golfweek magazine with a rating of 72.52. She is the No. 2 golfer in the Mountain West Conference with a scoring average of 72.89 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 been career threatening. She suffered a broken left thumb Nov. 25 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 in late February.
Backstedt is on pace to break the Lobo scoring record of 73.91 set by Kailin Downs in 2003-04.