Print story | Email story

No. 3 Arizona State wins 'Mo'Morial

By DAVID CAMPBELL
Eagle Sports Writer

A great weekend of golf at the "Mo"Morial Tournament came down to the final hole.

The course at the Traditions Golf Club finally declared the winner.

Arizona State's Anna Nordqvist put her second shot in the creek short of the 18th green and double-bogeyed the hole. Southern California's Paolo Morena chipped nicely from the edge of the green to set up her par putt. She shot even par over the three-day tournament to claim the individual championship.

Nordqvist's tee shot at 18 went right, setting up a long, difficult approach shot on the difficult, finishing 387-yard par-4. Her second shot landed on the fly in the deeply-recessed creekbed.

"She's a great player. She made it even more fun to have someone who plays that well in your same group and tied with you," said Moreno of her Pac-10 opponent. "Who knows when you are going to be in that position again."

Third-ranked Arizona State shot 893 as a team to win. USC was second, 11 shots back. Texas A&M (926) finished sixth. The 19th-ranked Aggies matched their first-day total of 306, the fourth-best team performance Sunday, but A&M had fallen out of team contention.

"It was a great field on a great golf course with great weather," Texas A&M coach Jeanne Sutherland said. "Today was an average round for us, and an average round wouldn't probably have lost us any spots. [Saturday] just blew us out of the water."

"I love to come to great golf courses. This is a great golf course and very, very challenging, but my team rose to the challenge," said Arizona State coach Melissa Luellen, who praised the play of her freshman, Nordqvist. "She doesn't have a three-wood in her bag and she hit a five-wood. She didn't hit her drive too well and that extra 10 or 12 yards really made a difference into the wind, having to hit over that hazard."

Arizona State's Jennifer Osborn had Sunday's best round, a one-under 71, to finish two shots behind Nordqvist in third.

"I thought I was going to make it, but I hit a bad shot to the right and was in the water," Nordqvist said. "I really like the course. You need to be strategic and aggressive, and I really like that."

Moreno's first collegiate win was marked by a steady finish. Moreno, whose second-round 70 had her in the lead, started the back nine with a pair of bogeys, but birdied the part-4 12 and par-5 15th.

"It was up and down. It was tough," said Moreno. "I was fighting the whole time so I knew at some time the game was going to come back and it did."

Nordqvist also had three birdies on her even-par final round, briefly taking lead with birdies at 11th and 13th holes.

Texas A&M's Ashley Knoll, who started the day tied for third, finished in a three-way tie for fifth after a six-over 77.

"It was a little frustrating today. I struggled throughout the whole round and I wasn't having much fun," said Knoll, who has won three tournaments this season. "I got it back together in the last eight holes, but had a stretch in there with doubles and bogeys."

The A&M senior, who had been the Big 12 Freshman of the Year at Oklahoma State, was matched up with OSU's Pernilla Lindberg.

Knoll brought a 25-foot putt over a mound into position for a tap-in at 16. She had a shot at birdies on 17 and 18.

Linberg chipped in for par and UCLA's Hannah Jun matched that with a downhill putt from the edge of the green. Knoll, who put her second shot directly over the hole, was an inch short on her downhill putt. She duplicated that on 18. The only golfer on the green, Knoll's birdie try was barely short.