Players got more than they bargained for in the nature category.
The 16 teams taking part in this year’s Golfweek Red Sky Classic expected some incredible views of nature when they walked the Red Sky Ranch and Golf Club near Vail, Colorado.
The women’s college golf tournament is played on two of the best courses in the state. In fact, according to Golfweek’s Best, the site’s Fazio Course is No. 2 on the best you can play while the Norman Course is tied for fourth.
The event welcomed a field that included Arkansas State, Boise State, Denver, Eastern Michigan, East Tennessee State, Kansas, Little Rock, Mercer, North Carolina Asheville, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, Pepperdine, Sacramento State, South Dakota State, UC Irvine and Wichita State.
But during Monday’s opening round, some players got more than they bargained for in the nature category as a massive moose decided to end a bath in a pond early and take a tour of one of the holes.
After the opening round of play, Sacramento State held the lead as senior Caitlin Maurice set her school’s single-round record with a bogey-free round of 65. Kansas rallied on Tuesday, however, to take the lead into Wednesday’s final round.
The Waves won their second start of the season by 15 shots.
There’s one thing people notice about Pepperdine’s women’s golfers: They’re exceptional putters.
Head coach Laurie Gibbs had other coaches seek her out to tell her so this week at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic, not that anything like that is lost on Gibbs, a 30-year veteran coaching women’s college golf. There’s no magic formula to success, Gibbs said, but the pieces are coming together for the Waves. After going 18 under for 54 holes at Red Sky Golf Club’s Fazio Course in Wolcott, Colorado, this week, Pepperdine won its second start of the season by 15 shots.
Only UCLA in 2018 has ever gone lower (reaching 32 under) over three rounds at Red Sky, a stunning yet tricky layout nestled into the mountains at more than 8,000 feet. In the tournament’s 12-year history at Red Sky, Pepperdine has now won four times.
“I think it’s going to be a really exciting year,” Gibbs said after this latest victory, which came in the Waves’ second fall start. “I think we have a team that could potentially do some really exciting things.”
Junior Lion Higo won the individual title at Red Sky with her 10-under total. It was a much different story from Higo’s experience here last year. Higo, a junior, kept it in the fairway and got hot with her putter this week. If she missed a long putt, she left herself a tap-in.
“It was just some easy golf out there,” she said.
Easy pars is a strategy Gibbs has preached to this squad. Two weeks ago at the USF Intercollegiate at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, the Waves led the field in pars and they repeated that at Red Sky.
“That was something that we’ve really been working on where they’re getting good yardages, really feeling comfortable with clubs into the green and I think they were just really committed to playing smart and really working the dispersion,” Gibbs said. “Even though yeah, they want to be aggressive, they felt like OK, I just want to give myself an easy par. And if they’re two-putting for par on every hole, pars are going to win the day. Sometimes you’re relaxed and you start making birdies.”
Pepperdine women’s golf junior Lion Higo celebrates after winning the 2022 Golfweek Red Sky Classic individual title at Red Sky Golf Club’s Fazio Course in Wolcott, Colorado. (Photo: Pepperdine)
In a landscape dominated by Power 5 programs – particularly once postseason hits – Pepperdine has always seemed to find an edge. The Waves were a fixture at the NCAA Women’s Championship in the early 2000s – which included a runner-up finish in 2003 – though their last finals appearance came in 2017. As women’s college golf becomes more competitive, the top players have more choices when it comes to recruiting.
“I thought for us, for our edge, that we need five players in it all the time,” Gibbs said, “and I feel like that’s what we have now.”
Behind Higo, Lauren Gomez finished runner-up individually at 7 under. The next three players finished inside the top 22. Pepperdine’s throw-out score in the final round was a 1-over 73.
Gibbs left two competitive players at home this week and in the spring semester, her roster grows to nine. Jeneath Wong, an Australian ranked inside the top 100 in the world, and Charlotte Brook, an up-and-coming talent form England, will arrive in January. The result will be a loaded roster that breeds competition for a spot in the lineup, and that’s reminiscent of the depth Pepperdine’s men’s program has cultivated these past few years. Pepperdine won the NCAA title in 2021 with a roster of nine men who were exceptionally competitive with one another.
“They really watched how our men prepared and they learned a lot,” Gibbs said of her team having a front-row seat to the men’s 2020-21 championship season. “I think they practice a little bit together. It’s kind of a neat relationship and I think both programs are really very supportive of each other.”
Three days after the Golfweek Red Sky Challenge, Pepperdine’s women have to turn around and get on a flight to New Mexico for the Golf Iconic Classic. The spring season picks up in early February, and Pepperdine will play six regular-season events beginning in early February with the Therese Hession Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes near Los Angeles and running through the WCC Championship in mid-April.
“Lots of players will be able to compete but it’s going to be competitive,” Gibbs said of that tournament lineup. “That really drives the players to make sure their game is ready to go, always be ready to play.
Red Sky offers private experiences to resort guests, and the rest of Colorado offers more great courses.
Looking for a chance to play two highly ranked private golf courses without paying an initiation fee and annual dues? Colorado might be your shot, as Red Sky Golf Club in Wolcott is for the most part a private club that allows resort guests to play its two courses on alternating days.
Red Sky’s Tom Fazio and Greg Norman courses are both in the top five layouts in Colorado on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access courses in each state. Want to see how the rest of the state’s public courses shake out? Keep scrolling.
Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with the list of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.
(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960 (c): Classic course, built before 1960 Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses.
Even as the winds picked up in Vail, Colorado, Northern Arizona didn’t give up a bit of ground.
VAIL, Colo. — Even as the winds picked up across Red Sky Golf Club’s Fazio Course Monday, Northern Arizona didn’t give up a bit of ground.
Altitude is nothing new for the women from Flagstaff, Arizona, though this kind of mountainous landscape is a bit more extreme.
“If you would have told me we were tied for the lead after one round, I would be thrilled,” Northern Arizona head coach Brad Bedortha said. “Nice to see our team go out and compete.”
NAU played the opening round at Red Sky in 9 under to take an immediate share of the lead at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic. That was thanks in large part to a back-nine 31 from Eliska Kocourkova, who started on No. 10 with a bogey then fired off four birdies in a row before making a hole-in-one at the par-3 17th, a picturesque short hole with a huge elevation drop.
“Definitely exceeded our expectations for today,” said Bedortha. “We got off to a great start. The girls were making birdies right out the gate.”
East Tennessee State is also at 9 under and with star performances of their own. Sara Hasegawa eagled the par-5 18th, her ninth hole of the day, for an opening 70 to go along with rounds of 67 from Tereza Melecka and 69 from Hollie Muse.
“The Fazio Course at Red Sky is an amazing course and it was fun watching the ladies attack it today,” head coach Stefanie Shelton said. “It can be a tricky setup with some of the pin positions, so the next two days will be a challenge I’m sure.”
Both teams lead Brigham Young University, which was the on-paper favorite entering the tournament after back-to-back victories in its first two fall starts at the Dick McGuire Invitational and the Mercedes Benz Collegiate. Two “local” teams fared well on the first day, as well. Denver and Colorado are both part of a tie for fourth, along with Central Arkansas, at 5 under.
Denver’s Anna Zanusso, who competed at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April, is the defending champion but opened with 1-over 73. Teammate Anna Cathrine Krekling fired a 6-under 66 good for a share of the individual lead with BYU’s Kerstin Fotu.
The event at Red Sky is in its 12th playing after not being played in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The traditional conference challenge aspect changed this year to feature a wider field. Interestingly, the defending Division II national champion Dallas Baptist is in the Division I field this week and in a share of the 13th after a 5-over 293 to open the week.
