SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The opening tournament of the season for Vanguard golf took place out at the Sterling Grove Golf Course in Arizona.  The women finished third out of the five teams present, scoring 955 for the three rounds (324-321-310).  The men were seventh, scoring a 962 for the event (318-326-318).  OUAZ won the team title on each side and the Spirit also won the individual gold medals on each side.  Brooklyn Motske and Rex Robinette led the Lions individually, with Motske finishing sixth and Robinette tied for 15th.

The Course: Designed by Nicklaus Design, the par 72 course runs around five water features and the undulating desert to present plenty of challenges.  The weather at the course over the past two years has always been wild and this week featured the dry summer heat, and with few trees in sight, the players had to stay cool both mentally and physically to come out on top.
 
What Happened? Motske started day two in seventh and moved up one place on the leaderboard to finish sixth with a total of 234.  She improved her score over each round (81-78-75) and had one birdie and 13 pars during the third round of action. Annabell Le netted 235 strokes over three rounds (80-81-74) to finish right behind Motske.  She had two birdies on her final round and tied for the lowest third-round score on Tuesday to finish seventh.  Shanaya Neru finished tied for 10th in her maiden event for the Blue and Gold with 242 strokes.  She put up scores of 82-82-78 and had knocked down one birdie and 10 pars during her third round.

Zoee Lynch was consistent across her three rounds, going 82-81-83 to finish with 246 shots, ending in 13th.  Shyla Tigilua was right behind her in 14th with 247 strokes, going 81-81-85 for the event.
 
On the men's side, Robinette paced the lineup at 229 for the tournament, as he picked up scores of 70-80-79.  He had nine pars and a birdie on his final round.  Matthew Wilkes put up tallies of 82-79-79 over the past two days to collect a score of 240, putting him in 30th.  Charles Gulbe was right behind him with 243 strokes (82-83-78) in 31st.  Wilkes had nine pars and two birdies on his final round and Gulbe had 10 pars and one birdie.
 
Breken Ramage placed 35th and had scores of 84-84-82 to finish with 250 strokes.  He had 11 pars during his final round.  Kasey Dilger had five pars on his final round and picked up scores of 84-88-95 for the tournament, putting him in 38th.
 
What was Said?  "I'm very proud of the performance of our teams," stated Head Coach Jeff Anderson.  "We started the season off on a solid note.  Getting back into a competition setting is always exciting.  Playing 36 holes in one day is never easy, especially in the Arizona heat on those types of greens.  But these men and women battled, with a lot of personal growth each round.  We have a combination of some veteran leadership as well as some new faces and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season with this group."
 
What is Next?  The men will be the next team out as they will head to the TMU Danish Classic on October 9-10.  Both teams will then come together for the Vanguard Fall Invite on October 17-18 in Beaumont.