Linfield golf displays potential and personal bests

Ross Passeck, Staff Writer

The Linfield men’s and women’s golf teams headed off for Forest Grove this weekend to play in the Pacific Invitational tournament.

The men’s team placed fourth out of six teams with a collective score of 591, only 21 strokes behind the first place Willamette Bearcats.

Although a fourth place finish is not ideal for the Wildcats they did manage to mark improvements and personal records on their scorecards.

“This tournament really showed us what we were capable of. We had multiple guys shoot their best rounds as Wildcats,” Logan Davis, ’18, said.

“However, we fell victim to the big number. If we could improve on one thing, it would be consistency,” he said.

Inconsistency may be marring the team this early in the season but they are still capable of stellar performances. Lucas Balala, ’18, shot a 69 on the first day while Logan Davis and Bodhi Parkin traded 71s over the two days.

“We have shown that we are capable of hanging with the best in the conference, but we cannot let one or two bad holes take us out of contention for the tournament. Our main goal is to peak during the fall classic in two weeks,” Davis said.

The women’s trip to Pacific was not as fruitful. They placed fifth out of five teams with a team score of 748.

Tiana Yamaoka, ’18, fired the team’s lowest score with an 89 on the first day and an 87 on the second.

“Individually, I improved by two strokes. My personal goal is to keep my scores in the 80s,” Yamaoka said.

“As a team, we played more consistent. My goal is for everyone’s scores and mental game to improve,” she said.

Improvement is all that is on the minds of the women golfers with Madeline Rice, ’18, echoing Yamaoka, “Our team played pretty well but it seemed the greens got to everyone in the tournament. As a team we could improve on our ability to come back with a good shot after a bad one.”