Bears Finish Busy Stretch At Fresno State Classic
The Cal women's golf team completes the busiest stretch of its season this week when it competes at the Fresno State Classic at Belmont Country Club.
The Bears will be playing their fourth tournament in as many weeks, as 15 teams will play the par-72, 6,034-yard course in Fresno.
"It's been a long stretch," Cal head coach Nancy McDaniel said. "We've had different lineups, and that's keeping the energy at a really good pace. As coaches, we are really looking at our energy and our health, and it's working out."
The Bears are coming off an 11th place finish (out of 16 teams) at last week's Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge in Palos Verdes Estates, a tournament that featured 10 teams ranked in the top-25. Cal placed fifth out of 13 teams the week before that at the Juli Inkster at Meadow Club Invitational in Fairfax.
Sophomore Mika Jin continues to be the Bears' top individual with a team-best 72.9 scoring average. She has three top-20 finishes this season.
Cal is ranked 47th nationally but hopes to use the final tournaments of the regular season to improve its standing even more heading into the postseason. After this week, the Bears have just one spring tournament remaining at the Silverado Showdown the first week of April in Napa. The Pac-12 Championships are April 18-20 in Eugene, Ore.
"It's all about scoring," McDaniel said. "Most of the work is done in our scoring zone, which is our short game. Until we get that figured out, we will be where we are. When we start to get our short game percentage up, then I think we'll start to see some incremental improvements."
Ten of the teams in this week's field are from California. There is one other Pac-12 team competing – Washington State. The Bears are the highest ranked team in the tournament.
The first two rounds of the Fresno State Classic will take place Monday, beginning at 8:15 a.m. The final 18 holes take place Tuesday.
CAL'S LINEUP
1. Cristina Ochoa
2. Elena Arias
3. Katherine Zhu
4. Mika Jin
5. Jasmine Lew