Four = Fourth!

A peaceful 4th in the wind!

We gave it our best shot, but the wind seemed to get the best of us on Day 1 at Apple Tree Resort in Yakima Washington and our Conference Championship last weekend! With wind gusts at 30 mph, and playing a little later in the day than 3 of the other teams, we struggled on a few of the holes where accuracy off the tee was critical.  We hung in there on Day 2 though and fought hard for a 4th place finish (out of nine teams). Of course, we wanted a first place victory, but coming in fourth with only four players is a GREAT accomplishment for our young players. We had no scores to throw out like the other top teams, so all the players knew that the pressure was on them. We had two players finish in the top 10 individually, which is a new achievement for our program! With all four back next season PLUS some additional recruits, look out below! We know what we need to do–we learned from this experience and we will go after it–in a “peaceful” manner of course!

Check out all the photo’s from our trip to Apple Tree!

view of Columbia Gorge from the van!

Whitney’s PEACE ball!

The team!

Flowers in “apple” shape!

GFU Baseball alum, Derek!

Mandy smiles!

Sarah makes a putt!

Whitney celebrates!

Another putt for Whitney!

Another putt for Sarah!

Another putt for Sarah!

Brianna sinks a long putt!

Equip. Mgr Rick sinks one!

Some of our fans!

Sarah offers some peace!

Feelin’ the Peace!

Brianna’s parents, Eileen and Jon!

A tough chip on the 18th green!

Mandy and parents, Sandy and Harvey

Whitney celebrates!

Pretty setting!

Coach MJ and Bri!

Practice, practice!

Red apple bunker on 18th hole!

A peaceful 4th in the wind!

A One-Stroke Victory!

Victory by ONE at Pacific Inv'l!

Hooray!  After several second place finishes this spring season, we captured a victory at the Pacific Invitational on Sunday!  It was a close one–but a “win is a win” as they say!!  We played in beautiful weather, 80 degrees and the team had a lot of “fun in the sun!”

We now have 4 days to get ready for our Conference Championship this weekend!  Go team Go!

Sarah’s new golf socks!

Whitney can’t stop laughing!

Team posing before tournament

On the practice green!

More practice putting!

Sarah’s tan line after the tournament!

Bri and Whitney are all smiles!

Mandy’s tan lines!

Pam on the 18th green!

Our victory cookies!

Victory by ONE at Pacific Inv’l!

A Windy Chambers Bay

The Spring Classic wrapped up yesterday, and it was a tournament to remember!!  Chambers Bay is a beautiful new course on the Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington!  The course has been selected to host the 2010 US Men’s Amateur and the 2015 US Open!  When you look out at the Sound, the scenery is just breathtaking!  However, when you look back inland, you kind of feel like you’ve just landed on the moon!!  Strange, but very fun!

You have all probably heard the scores, but just in case you haven’t, we finished in fourth.  It was a close race, and we were just one stroke out of the lead after day 1.  Then, after 27 holes, we were right there!  However, a few “issues” got in our way on the back nine in the wind, and we didn’t quite get it done.  It was close!  We learned some great lessons at Chambers–especially about playing in the wind!!  There is only one tree (the Lone Fir!) on the entire course, so when the wind blows, it doesn’t serve as much protection!!

We are still in “third” in the standings in the Conference, and we are happy to still be “hanging in there!”  We have our work cut out for us, but we are a determined team, and we will keep improving and growing and then we’ll see what happens.  Don’t count us out just yet!!!!  This team is going places, so stay tuned!

Team at #2 hole named after us!

Our “inspirational” player, Pam!

The 9th hole!

Mandy’s dad waves from afar!

Moon landing?

practice round strategy!

Sarah’s fan club!

Coach MJ and Sarah

Team is determined

Brianna tees off!

Practice round putting!

Waiting at the 18th green!

Practice at Pebble Beach!

Following the Santa Cruz Invitational, our team had the opportunity to stop over on the Monterey peninsula (during spring break) and get in a little practice at Pebble Beach!!  It was the ultimate!!  What an amazing golf experience and memorable time!  We can’t capture it all in the pictures, but hopefully you can get a feeling of what it was like!  Our putting session on the practice green next to the Pebble Beach Lodge with “everyone” watching was pretty darn cool!  We played the Peter Hay par 3 course and hung out at the Pebble Beach driving range too!  In fact, we were mistaken for the UCLA “Bruins, which is okay by us as their women’s golf team is currently rated #1 in the country!  Nice compliment–we will be there!

Enjoy the photo’s of our amazing stopover on the Monterey Peninsula!!!

Monterey!

Forest Gump’s shoes!

Our cute waiter in Monterey!

Looking up at Pebble Beach from Carmel beach

Carmel beach!

Carmel Beach with Pebble Beach in the background!

Look how beautiful it is!

Making our mark in the sand!

All the trophies at Pebble!

Famous #18!

Another view

Team with back of lodge

our lunch friend!

Bri gets ready to putt!

Putting at Pebble!

Isn’t this cool?

Our team on the green!

Getting ready to tee it at Peter Hay course

Practice session

Lone Cypress along 17-mile drive

Looking for “birdies!”

On the patio at Inn at Spanish Bay

Having fun by the fire

Bagpiper performing

Team shot

Point Lobos state park, Carmel

Scenery in the park

Looking for sea lion pups!

Pretty spectacular

A Test of Toughness…”Second” in Santa Cruz!

18th hole at Pasatiempo!

After finishing up in Phoenix, we took off Sunday morning for the Santa Cruz Invitational at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, California.  If you haven’t heard about Pasatiempo, it’s one of the top public courses in the U.S., and it was designed by Alistar McKenzie, who also designed Augusta National and Cypress Point!  It’s an amazing course, and the moment we drove in and saw the gigantic bunkers and greens welcoming us, the excitement level picked up a notch!  For a golfer, Pasatiempo is an experience of a lifetime! It takes a lot of patience and mental strategy to tackle a course like Pasatiempo!

Our team stood up well to the challenge, and although host Santa Cruz took home the first place trophy on their home course, we were pleased with second place!  Are we seeing a pattern here???    We  believe that if we could play the course a few more times, we’d have it figured out too!!   We had a wonderful time and experience, and we hope to get back there again next year.  LPGA hall of famer, Juli Inkster, who grew up playing Pasatiempo says, “if you can play Pasatiempo, you can play anywhere!”

After the tournament, we headed for more excitement at the Monterey Peninsula!  Info to follow!

18th hole at Pasatiempo!

Second by Two in Phoenix!!

Team with our host, Big Al

We captured another “Second Place” finish–this time in Phoenix, missing a tie for first by TWO small strokes to nationally ranked St. Lawrence (out of New York).  Currently, SLU is ranked #16  in the nation!  So, the good news is that we are there–and we can play! We had an amazing trip to Phoenix, going from a chilly 40 degrees to 90 degrees in a 2 hour airplane ride!  Then, we met up with a former player and alum (Nicole Hudson who graduated in May) and went to the Mariners vs. Padres spring training baseball game!  It felt a bit strange to sit there in shorts and believe that just five days earlier we were in the rain at PumpkinRidge!  Crazy!

Big Al and Lola (our AZ hosts!) rolled out the red carpet for all the teams!  We had a wonderful dinner at their house and the First Lady of George Fox (Ruth Baker) and her daughters attended as well!  Also in attendance was Sarah’s Mom, sister and nephew as well as back by popular demand, Whitney’s grandfather, who put on his Scottish kilt and put on a bagpipe performance for us all!  He just keeps getting better and better!

We can’t wait to get back to Arizona next year!  Our time there in the desert sun goes by way too fast!

Our “chaffeur” Patty at PDX!

YMCA at the Mariner’s game!

Big Al and the wrong t-shirt!

Sarah and her Mom, sister and nephew!

Sarah’s mom, Wanda and nephew, Phoenix!

Putting n the sun!

Teams getting ready to play!

First Lady Ruth and daughter, Tara

Shuttle drivers, Gayle and Wayne!

Relaxing poolside after the round!

Whitney’s grandfather!

Brianna and Uncle Terry and Aunt Marilyn

Grandpa Jim and Betty!

Team with our host, Big Al

Afterwards at the fountain!

A Strong Second!!

Our Golf teaching Pro, Jason Owens

Our Lady Bruins pulled off a GREAT Second place finish in this past weekend’s Pacific Invitational at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club!  It was definitely “Extreme Golf” as unfortunately the weather conditions were “extremely” poor–but we kept “visions of this weeks trip to Phoenix,” in our minds to help us fight through the wind and rain!

Due to the conditions, the tournament, which was suppose to be a 2-day (36 holes) event, was turned into an 18 hole event as play was canceled on Sunday.  So, we didn’t have 18 more holes and the opportunity to catch the first place team–but we left happy with a solid SECOND place finish!

Fans at this tournament who came to cheer us on in the rain including Bri’s dad, Jon and her brother, Kyle with his girlfriend, Jasmine, and Mandy’s parents, Harvey and Sandy.  Our teaching pro, Jason Owens also came out to check out the action!

Bring on the sunshine!!  We are now off to Phoenix, then Santa Cruz, and then we’ll be stopping over to check out the action at Pebble Beach!!  Watch the site for some exciting photo’s from our upcoming trip! In the meantime, check out our fans from this past weekend!  Thank you fans for fighting through the elements too–we appreciate all your support!

Team dives into new spring season in LA!

Our team “dived” right into the 2009 spring season in Los Angeles on February 21 and 22 by taking SECOND PLACE, and finishing out of first place by just 13 strokes to nationally ranked Santa Cruz!  Not a bad start to our season, especially since we did not have much time to practice!  It was great motivation for our team, and we are all set for our new season.  Besides Los Angeles, we’ll be traveling to Phoenix, Santa Cruz (then Monterey and Pebble Beach for fun!) Tacoma (new Chambers Bay Golf links) and Yakima Washington for our Conference Championship!  Stay tuned for more excitement to come!

Here are some photo’s from our fun “We love LA!” trip:

Helping with the “Pink Zone!”

Brianna, Whitney and Sarah smile with one of the halftime youngest "winners!"

The GFU Women’s Golf team helped out with a “Pink Zone” breast cancer awareness campaign on Friday night, which is a “global effort” sponsored by the  Women’s Basketball Coaches Assoc. (WBCA).  Over 1,250 schools across the nation are taking part in this effort over the first three weeks of February to build breast cancer awareness as well as raise money for breast cancer research.  Last year, over $930K was raised nationally.

George Fox is one of the schools that participates and gets in “the pink” for one night to support the cause.  The golf team gals were on hand to help give out tickets for a “ladies” only raffle which included giving out “pink” t-shirts to women and girls who came to the women’s and men’s basketball games.  They also helped with a half-time contest–mainly for women–or those “wearing pink!”

Mandy and Whitney pose with two "pink" friends!

The exact figure for the money raised on Friday night is not in yet–but it’s over $500!  Congratulations to our team and their efforts to help this great cause!

Our First Board Meeting!

PGE CEO, Peggy Fowler (center) with team

On Friday afternoon, the Lady Bruin golfers traveled to downtown Portland to the executive offices of Portland General Electric (PGE) in the World Trade Center to meet with PGE’s CEO/President AND former George Fox alum, Peggy Fowler!! After a visit to Peggy’s office and a few photo’s, the team proceeded to the Board Room where they spent a few hours meeting with Peggy and 3 other top women executives with PGE. These women included Arleen Barnett, Vice President of Administration; Janet Gulley, Manager of Mechanical Engineering; and Loretta Mabinton, Assistant General Counsel in the Legal Department. The women executives gave some of their best business advice to the team, and talked about ways to “stand out” for job opportunities following graduation.

Our new friends, Arleen, Janet, Peggy and Loretta!

After their talk, the student-athletes were able to ask questions and to learn more about various jobs, as well as resume development skills and basically what it takes to become a successful business person in today’s world. The girls thought the experience was “intense and fabulous!” They were energized by the conversation in the Board Room and the opportunity to learn from these accomplished women. They were extremely excited to see that someone who was a chemistry major at George Fox, went on to become CEO and President of PGE, overseeing 3,700 employees! It expanded our student-athlettes dreams for what they might be able to accomplish in the future.

While visiting with the women, the team also learned that “golf” is a great sport for the business world! Peggy said that knowing how to golf has helped her with networking and building relationships.

Mandy, Brianna and Kylea share a laugh with Peggy after meeting

Besides golf, the team learned that “grades are important” as well! Thus, our team is motivated to work harder in the classroom as well as on the golf course! What a great experience for our Lady Bruins!