When you win a conference golf championship, it puts a lot of your season’s goals into your golf bag. For Lobo Manon Molle, yet another goal came her way on Monday when she was handed a spot in the 2015 NCAA Women’s Golf Regionals.
Molle will play as an individual at the San Antonio Regional which will be hosted byUTSA at Briggs Ranch Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas.
It was a dramatic late-season charge that led Molle into postseason play. The talented sophomore did not play in New Mexico’s fall season after suffering a broken bone in her foot as a result of missing the last step while coming down a staircase.
It was a challenging comeback for Molle, who played with pain throughout the spring season. She saved her best for last as she won the Mountain West individual championship by carding the best round of the day (67) on the final 18 holes and claiming the title with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff.
Her three-day card read 72-71-67=210. The Lobos finished runners-up in the tournament to San Diego State.
Molle enters the postseason with a 73.67 stroke average. She is one of three Mountain West golfers who will play in the NCAA postseason as individuals. She joins Boise State sophomore Genevieve Ling and Fresno State senior Madchen Ly. Molle was tied at the MW Championships after 54 holes with San Diego State’s Milagros Chaves, who goes into the postseason as a member of the Aztecs.
Molle listed a number of personal goals going into the 2014-15 season including winning her first tournament as a Lobos (Done!), winning a Mountain West Championships (Done as an individual!) and advancing to the NCAA Tournament (Done!).
The Mountain West also will be represented by three teams: San Diego State, which grabbed the MW’s automatic bid as the league champions, and San Jose State and UNLV, two teams ranked in the Top 50. New Mexico, the Mountain West runner-up, did not get at at-large bid for NCAA play.
The 54-hole regional tournaments will be played May 7-9 with 72 teams and 24 individuals competing. Molle has to finish as one of the top three individuals in order to advance to the NCAA Championships which will be held at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida. The top six teams from each regional also will advance.
The women’s national championship will have three days of stroke play (54 holes) followed by another 18 holes of stroke play for the top 15 teams and top nine individuals. The top eight teams will face off in match play to determine the 2015 national champion. The individual champion will be named at the end of the 72-holes of stroke play.