We had another great Westbrook Invitational hosted by the University of Wisconsin. This year we had 14 of the top NCAA Women’s teams travel across the country to play at Westbrook Village. Last year we were unable to have member housing for the players due to COVID restrictions, however this year member housing returned. We had 12 of the 14 teams were able to stay with our members and get to know one another. As always, we had a great turnout for the event with many spectators and over 200 member volunteers throughout the three days.

Saturday was a practice round day with great Arizona weather.

Sunday was a continuous 36 hole shotgun that had some of the coldest and windiest weather of the year. Most of our members cancelled their golf at our Lakes course, but all the competitors in the Invitational at the Vistas course had to press on and wow are these players good! Even with the terrible weather we had over 20 players within 3 shots of the lead after two rounds of play. Five players were at -4, five players were at -3 and many more under par. The team event started to have Nebraska pull away with great play and an 8 shot cushion going into the final round at -10 under.

Sunday also had some amazing highlights. Lauren Clark of Kansas had a hole in one during round 2 on the Vistas hole #4. She hit a 6 iron from 174 yards for the only ace of the event! Also, during round 2, Minnesota’s Mariana Mesones started her round off birdieing 7 of her first 8 holes and finishing with a 5 under par 67, tied for the lead. We had pretty phenomenal play for such a cold and windy day of play.

The final round Monday brought back the Arizona sun, calmer conditions, and stellar play! Alyson Bean of Denver fired the low round of the event with a 65 and took home Co-Individual Champion along with number 53 ranked player in the world Caley McGinty of Ohio State who both finished at -9 for the event. The team event had a charging Ohio State who shot -12 for the day and got within 3 of the Nebraska lead at one point before Nebraska put it in overdrive and fired back with -11 to win at -21 by seven shots over runner up, Ohio State. This was a bit of an upset based on rankings as Nebraska is ranked 49 and Ohio State is ranked 24, but both teams played extremely well in tough conditions.

This was another great event that added the amazing atmosphere at Westbrook! Thank you to the 200+ member volunteers, sheriff posse, all the players and patrons!