HURRICANE, Utah — BYU golfer Maria Jose “MJ” Barragan won the Copper Rock Championship Qualifier as a Low Amateur on Saturday at Copper Rock Golf Course to earn an exemption into the Epson Tour Copper Rock Championship.
“It was a hard day, mostly the second one when the conditions were pretty bad,” Barragan said. “I tried to stay focused and not think about the outcome, just play golf.”
In the two-day qualifier, Barragan carded a 74-81–155 which gave her 11-over par on the tournament. The 74 the junior posted in round one marked as the best scoring round out of any golfer in the amateur pool. Barragan won in a playoff against her teammate Sunbin Seo to claim the exemption.
Barragan will participate in the Epson Tour’s annual Copper Rock Championship in Hurricane on May 14-16.
“Competing in this with the rest of the team was hard because, at the end of the day, you want to beat everyone, but it’s your team,” Barragan said. “Sunbin is one of my closest friends, so I was proud of the way she played.”
Nine other BYU women golfers competed in the low am. The aforementioned Seo (76-79–155) took second after losing in a playoff to Barragan. Sophomore Ava Schroeder (79-80–159) finished right behind her teammates in third place at 15-over par. Lilly DeNunzio (81-80–161) recorded a 17-over-par score and tied for fifth to round out the top five, making it four BYU golfers in the top five of the leaderboard. Junior Whitney Banz (78-84–162) went 18-over par to tie for seventh. Junior Berlin Long (75-89–164) shared 11th place after carding a 20-over par. Senior Lily McCauley (79-86–165) took 13th with 21-over par. Freshman Aadyn Long (79-90–169) posted a 25-over par to tie for 18th with her teammate Kanyanol (Naji) Aramkul (82-87–169). Freshman Nya Palmer (83-89–172) recorded a 28-over par to tie for 21st.