Women's Golf Travels to Washington

PROVO -- After finishing fifth in their first tournament of the season, the BYU women's golf team travels to Sammamish, Wash. to compete Oct. 6-8 at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational.

Cougar starters include the three Newren sisters: senior Nicole (Newren-Chandler), junior Natalie and freshman Rachel, who are playing together for the second time this season. The sisters played at the Dick McGuire Invitational in Albuquerque over Sept. 25-27, helping BYU close the tournament in fifth place.

"We're playing against a very strong field," head coach Sue Nyhus said. "I'm excited about how well the girls have been playing. "

Other Cougars joining the Newren sisters are junior Margaret Gibby and freshman Alexis Edwards, who finished tied for 29th and 20th at the Dick McGuire Invt'l and are leading BYU in individual stroke average.

The Ihlanfeldt this year will be played at the Sahalee Country Club, one of the most beautiful golf courses in the U.S., hosted by the University of Washington.

"This tournament will show us where we rank among other top teams and prepare us to face our own conference," Nyhus said.

The 15-team field for this year's tournament includes returning NCAA Champion Southern California and 13 teams that qualified for the 2003 NCAA Regionals. The field is also made up of teams from the Pac-10 Conference and the Western Athletic Conference.

The complete field includes Arizona, Arizona State, California, Long Beach State, Nevada, Oregon, Oregon State, San Francisco, Southern California, Stanford, Washington, Washington State, UCLA and UNLV.

The Ihlanfeldt Invitational will include a practice round on Sunday at noon. Monday and Wednesday's rounds will start at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday's second round will begin at 10:15 a.m.

Live scoring of the event will be available at www.byucougars.com or by clicking here.