Wildcat golfers excelled with a first-place finish for the men and second for the women at the Logger Invitational at Washington’s notoriously tough Fircrest course March 4-5.
On the men’s side, the ’Cats were tied for first place after the first day of competition despite difficulty adjusting to the speed of the greens, which were different than what they were used to during practice.
Junior Yutaro Sakamoto was named the Northwest Conference’s Player of the Week after shooting 4-under 138, claiming his first tournament win of the season.
Senior Tyler Nelson, who holds the best scoring average in the country for Division III schools, placed second individually, helping the ’Cats secure the win.
“I was proud of all of our guys,” head coach Greg Copeland said. “On the second day, I thought they really competed well. Most of the guys improved dramatically as evidenced by the fact that we shot 14 strokes better the second day and won the tournament by 20 strokes.”
Linfield finished at 582, University of Puget Sound took second with 602, Pacific Lutheran University took third at 632 and Willamette University came in fourth with 671.
On the women’s side, the Wildcats came in second at 721, 39 strokes behind Puget Sound’s 682. Pacific Lutheran took third at 729, followed by Willamette’s 858.
Linfield’s finish was impressive because the ’Cats were missing two of their top performers, senior Brittany Johnston and sophomore Sophie Corr, who had academic priorities.
The standout performer was freshman Brinn Hovde, who finished with an all-time personal tournament best of 79 after the first day of competition.
“I’d never shot in the 70s before yesterday,” Hovde said. “I just wanted to build off that.”
After the second day of competition, she tied for first overall with a score of 161.
”It was nice to see her hard work pay off,” head coach Karly Cramer said.
Hovde would have won it but faltered on a three-foot putt on the 18th hole.
Another top finisher was junior Brynn Hurdus who took second place individually.
“I was really proud of her this weekend and am happy to see her scores dropping — she deserved some birdies,” Cramer said. “She just needs her putter to warm up in order for her score to drop.”
Next up for the Wildcats is the Willamette Invitational Illahe Hills Country Club in Salem, Ore., on March 15.

Mary Campbell
Photographer Mary Campbell can be reached at [email protected]