July 10, 2008
It was a good day for University of New Mexico women’s golfers.
Morgan Grantham shot a 1-over 73 in the final round to easily win the Albuquerque City Women’s Amateur Golf Championship title by 19 shots at the Santa Ana Golf Club. Grantham finished with a 54-hole total of 224 (77-74-73).
A few hours earlier and several thousand miles away, Jodi Ewart won her match as England advanced to the semifinals of the European Ladies’ Amateur Team Championship at the Stenungsunds Golf Club (par 72, 6,125 yards) in Sweden.
Grantham (Kingman, Ariz.) will be a senior at UNM in 2008-09, Ewart (North Yorkshire, England) a junior.
A Lobo golfer won the city championship for the third consecutive year. Alexandra Phelps, Grantham’s Lobo teammate the past three seasons, took the crown in 2006 and ’07. Phelps also won it in 2004 following her senior year at Eldorado High School.
Seeded No. 1 in the European championship, England easily defeated No. 8 seed Denmark 6.5 to 0.5 in the quarterfinals of the match-play format in Sweden. Ewart topped Line Vedel Hansen 2 and 1.
England now meets the Netherlands in Friday’s semifinals. The other semifinal pits Spain against Sweden. Live scoring is available at http://www.golfdata.se/live/match_lag.asp?Lang=ENG&tk=AN0828X&tour=AN.
The Dutch team features Dewi Claire Schreefel, who recently completed her eligibility at Southern California. The Trojans won the team title at the 2008 NCAA Championships at the UNM Championship Course in May, while Schreefel took medalist honors at the 2007 Margaret Moses Branch NCAA Fall Preview, also played at UNM. Also competing for the Netherlands is Christel Boeljon, who will be a senior at Purdue.
The European competition is comprised of 16 countries and features numerous international players who attend universities in the United States. Spain is led by Azahara Munoz, who plays at Arizona State, and won the individual title at the 2008 NCAA Championships in Albuquerque. Belem Mozo (Southern Cal) and Maria Hernandez (Purdue) also play for the Spanish team.
Ewart is the two-time defending Mountain West Conference individual champion. She was an honorable mention All-American by Golfweek in 2008 after being named a second team selection in 2007. The 2008 Mountain West Conference Co-Player of the Year finished the 2007-08 season with a 74.41 scoring average.