The Cal Poly women’s golf team finished in fourth place at the 2010 Big West Conference women’s golf championship at the San Luis Obispo Country Club Tuesday.
Tournament host Cal Poly held onto fourth place at 948 points, behind Cal State Northridge which had 959, UC Riverside which had 970 and Cal State Fullerton with a winning total of 995.
Mustang senior Julia Puscheck scored a 76 in the last round with one birdie and five bogeys to move up seven positions into a tie for 11th place. She finished with a 19-over-par 235 total.
Alicia Weber finished in a tie for 13th place with a 236 total following her final-round 80.
Other scorers for coach Scott Cartwright’s Mustangs were Maddy Fletcher with an 81 and a 238 total for an 18th-place tie, Stephanie Yocum with an 84 and a 245 total for 24th place, and Kirsten Locke with a 78 and a 254 total for a 31st-place tie.
Yocum won the Big West individual title a year ago with a nine-over-par 225 total.
Conditions were not ideal on the course; the final round began with rain and wind. The showers cleared midway through the final 18 holes, but the wind remained, at 15 to 25 miles per hour from the west.
Tuesday’s round produced the highest scoring average at 80.74, compared to 79.83 on Sunday and 79.11 on Monday.
UC Davis, led by Chelsea Stelzmiller, calimed the Big West title.
Stelzmiller, who trailed Aggie teammate Amy Simanton by a stroke during most of the final round, moved into the lead by two shots when Simanton triple-bogeyed the par-3 14th hole.
But Stelzmiller, playing one group behind Simanton and needing a par or bogey on the 369-yard, par-4 18th hole to win, posted a double-bogey six and the playoff on the finishing hole was on.
Both UC Davis players parred the hole the first and second times through. Finally, on the third try, Simanton’s second shot stopped short of the green, she chipped eight feet past the hole and putted twice for a bogey. Stelzmiller reached the green in two and two-putted for par and the victory.
Stelzmiller carded a final-round 77 and Simanton a 76 as both finished with eight-over-par 224 totals on the 6,168-yard par-72 course. Simone Hoey of Long Beach State had a 225 total for third place and Demi Runas of UC Davis was fourth at 226. Both carded 73s Tuesday, the best round of the day.
UC Davis and perhaps an individual or two from the Big West Conference will compete in the NCAA West Regional on May 6-8 at the Stanford Golf Course, with the four-day NCAA Women’s Golf Championship scheduled for May 18-21 at the Country Club of Landfall in Wilmington, North Carolina.