It’s been an eventful last several months for the Colorado State University women’s golf team.

In May, CSU teammates Katrina Prendergast and Ellen Secor won the national title at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship. In July, the Rams hired a new head coach, Laura Cilek. Last week, Prendergast led after the first two rounds of the CoBank Colorado Women’s Open and ended up finishing second while competing against a field comprised mainly of pros. And on Wednesday, for the third consecutive year in Colorado, a pair of CSU teammates earned medalist honors in the Colorado-based qualifier for the U.S. Women’s Four-Ball.

And for the record, the college season hasn’t even begun.

CSU junior Jessica Sloot, from Fruit Heights, Utah, and sophomore teammate Haley Greb, from Pendleton, Ore., fired a 5-under-par 66 best-ball in Wednesday’s qualifying tournament at Fox Hollow Golf Course in Lakewood. That earned them the one available berth — out of an 11-team field — in the national Women’s Four-Ball, which will be played April 27-May 1 at Timuquana Country Club in Jacksonville, Fla. (The qualifiers are pictured, with Sloot at left.)

The last two years in the Colorado-based qualifying tournament, Prendergast and Secor were the medalists. And, as noted, they went on to win the national title in May, which makes them exempt from qualifying for the 2019 championship.

“Knowing that they won this event last year kind of drives us a little bit because we’re so competitive,” said Sloot, who will be going to her fifth USGA championship (second Four-Ball to go with three U.S. Girls’ Juniors). “We want to be there and able to push them a little harder and try to give them some competition at the national level.”

Said Greb, a former 5A state high school champion in Oregon: “We compete all the time in practice with those two. You could maybe call us the underdog, but in our minds we’re not. It’ll be fun. Hopefully we get there and maybe even see them in the championship (match). That would be pretty cool.”

Another set of college teammates — the University of Denver’s Mary Weinstein of Highlands Ranch and Annie Heck from Eagan, Minn. (together at left) — finished a stroke behind the two Rams, at 67. It’ll be the second time Weinstein has been first alternate in a Colorado qualifying tournament for this event, as she also was in that role in 2015 with Jaclyn Murray. The first alternates from Colorado last year — Hailey Schalk and Charlotte Hillary — ended up landing a spot in the national championship in May.

Sloot and Greb shot a best-ball score of even-par 35 on the front nine on Wednesday, but kicked it into gear with an eagle by Greb on the 455-yard, par-5 10th hole. There, she hit a 4-iron from the rough to 8 feet and sank the putt.

“I’ve probably never hit that good of a 4-iron in my life before,” said Greb, who will be going to her first USGA national championship. “That helped our momentum going into the back nine because we only shot even on the front. We needed to get after the back and that definitely helped us get going. It led to a strong finish.”

Indeed, the CSU teammates shot a 5-under-par 31 on the back nine despite both bogeying the last hole after each driving a ball into the left hazard.

“I always thought, ‘We’re not playing well right now, but it’s going to turn around. We’re going to get after it,'” Greb said. “Once we had something happen. it seems so much easier after that.”

In addition to the eagle, they made four best-ball birdies, with Sloot sinking putts of 55 feet on No. 14 and of 45 feet on No. 17. Both putts hit the back of the cup, popped up in the air and fell in, meaning both would have rolled well past had they not gone in.

“After nine I said to (Greb), ‘We’ve got to go low on this back nine.’ And we did just that,” said Sloot (left), who previously played in the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball with Secor in 2016. “Us teammates, we’ve learned to ham and egg it really well. We play together all the time at practice, so playing with a teammate in this event helps out for sure.”
 

U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Qualifying
At Par-71 Fox Hollow GC in Lakewood
ADVANCE TO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Haley Greb, Pendleton, Utah/Jessica Sloot, Fruit Heights, Utah 35-31–66
ALTERNATES (In Order)
Mary Weinstein, Highlands Ranch/Anni Heck, Eagan, Minn. 32-35–67
Paris Hilinski, La Quinta, Calif./Allyn Stephens, Houston 34-34–68

For all the scores, CLICK HERE.
 

While the presence of Colorado State University teammates Katrina Prendergast and Ellen Secor gave the Centennial State some local flavor at the team event that starts on Saturday, a couple of Colorado residents recently learned they’ll be competing as well.

Hailey Schalk of Erie and Charlotte Hillary of Cherry Hills Village, who finished 1-2 last year in both the 3A Girls State High School tournament and the girls division of the AJGA Hale Irwin Colorado Junior, made it into the 64-team national Four-Ball field after originally being the first alternate from last October’s qualifying tournament at Walnut Creek Golf Preserve in Westminster. There, Prendergast and Secor were medalists with a four-ball score of 66, while Schalk and Erie carded a 68 for the first alternate spot.

Now both local teams will be in the field for the national championship, set for El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, Calif.

Schalk and Hillary (pictured, with Schalk in black) will be the first pair of Colorado residents to compete at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball since 2015, when another set of then-Colorado high schoolers qualified — Jennifer Kupcho and Gillian Vance, who advanced to the match play round of 32. Tiffany Maurycy of Denver competed in the 2016 national Women’s Four-Ball, but her partner was from out of state, Amy Ellertson of Charlottesville, Va. Aili Bundy and Lauren Lehigh of Loveland High School qualified for the 2016 national championship, but didn’t compete because the national event conflicted with the state high school tournament.

At this year’s championship, 64 teams will play two rounds of stroke play Saturday and Sunday, with the top 32 finishers advancing to match play.

Schalk and Hillary are now both high school sophomores, Schalk at Holy Family and Hillary at Kent Denver. Schalk won two Junior Golf Alliance of Colorado majors in 2017 to go with her victories in the AJGA Irwin and the 3A state meet, and she earned JGAC Girls Player of the Year honors.

Hillary, winner of the JGAC Tour Championship in 2016, qualified for the U.S. Girls’ Junior last year and represented Colorado in the Girls Junior America’s Cup — along with Schalk, Jaclyn Murray and Lehigh. Earlier this month, Hillary finished second — after a playoff — at the AJGA Tathata Golf Junior All-Star Championship in Arizona. And she placed fifth in another AJGA event.

As for Prendergast and Secor, they made it to the match play round of 16 in last year’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball. Last week, they finished third and fourth, respectively, in the Mountain West Conference Championship.
 

Previously on the docket for the two high school seniors were final exams, graduation, the regional state qualifying golf tournaments and the state meet.

Then last week, Kupcho and Vance added a trip to Bandon Dunes in Oregon for the inaugural U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship, set for May 9-13, 2015.

Kupcho and Vance earned a berth in the USGA national championship by sharing medalist honors in a qualifying tournament held Oct. 6 at Heritage at Westmoor in Westminster. The Coloradans posted a 3-under-par 69 best-ball total to share the top spot in the 11-team field with 16-year-olds Maria Fassi and Maria Balcazar, both golfers from Mexico. (Vance, in a black shirt, is pictured above with Kupcho.)

Those two teams claimed the available qualifying spots at Westmoor for the 2015 U.S. Women’s Four-Ball, the first ever held. The USGA announced in early 2013 that it was adding women’s and men’s Four-Ball Championships beginning in 2015, while discontinuing women’s and men’s U.S. Public Links Championships after this year.

“I think it’s extra special (to qualify for this event) because for 50 years and however long it will be going on, we’ll be able to say we played in the first one,” said Vance, who attends Dakota Ridge High School.

“It’s going to be fun to play in the first one, and to do it with Gillian is going to make it even better,” added Kupcho, a senior at Jefferson Academy.

The U.S. Women’s Four-Ball will be the sixth USGA championship for Kupcho and the second for Vance, who was the qualifying medalist in Colorado for the 2014 U.S. Girls’ Junior.

Kupcho and Vance, friends who have known each other and competed for seven or eight years, had to bounce back after a best-ball bogey on the opening hole at Heritage at Westmoor. But a birdie on No. 2 led to them playing the final 17 holes in 4 under.

“We both struggled (at times), but we were good because we were playing together,” said Kupcho, the runner-up in this year’s HealthOne Colorado Women’s Open.

“We ham-and-egged it really well,” Vance said. “When she wasn’t playing well, I played well, and when I played bad she played really well.”

Both Kupcho and Vance will be playing NCAA Division I golf next year, with Kupcho committed to Wake Forest and Vance to the University of Colorado.

Fassi, who recently competed for Mexico in the World Junior Girls Championship, is no stranger to having played in Colorado. She qualified in the state for the 2013 U.S. Girls’ Junior (along with Kupcho).

Fassi and her fellow Mexico native Balcazar made four birdies and one bogey at Heritage at Westmoor, just as Kupcho and Vance did. Both teams birdied the 18th hole to post their 69s.

Coloradans Sydney Gillespie and Adara Pauluhn were the only other team to break par in the Oct. 6 qualifier as they earned the first alternate spot by shooting a 71 at Heritage at Westmoor.

For all the results from the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Qualifying, CLICK HERE.