Notre Dame, featuring two-time Colorado state high school champion Becca Huffer, won the event at the Omni with an 858 total, with Texas Tech (863) finishing second, CU (867) third and Colorado State (870, a team record for three rounds) fourth.

     CSU also had a player place in the top 10 as junior Kasey Claussen, a former Fort Collins High School standout, shared the eighth spot. Huffer, a freshman for Notre Dame, came in 32nd place.

     Childs, while a newcomer to the college ranks, is no stranger to pressure-filled situations on the golf course. Earlier this year, she won the San Francisco City Championship. And in April, at a prestigious men’s amateur tournament in Alameda, the Commuters, she became the first female in the history of the event to make the cut.

     “She’s worked really hard this year and was very well prepared coming in,” Kelly said.

     That showed at the Farr tournament as she made 18 birdies over three rounds, including 15 over the first 36 holes on Monday.

     While there were plenty of good players at the Farr tournament, the most notable wasn’t competing. Hollis Stacy, a three-time winner of the U.S. Women’s Open, served as a rules official at the Omni. Stacy, now a Colorado resident, played on the LPGA tour at the same time as Kelly, and both were friends of Heather Farr, a former LPGA player who died in 1993 after battling breast cancer.



CU Heather Farr Memorial Invitational

At Par-72 Omni Interlocken GC in Broomfield

     Team scores -- 1. Notre Dame 288-281-289--858; 2. Texas Tech 299-283-281--863; 3. Colorado 286-291-290--867; 4. Colorado State 289-295-286--870; 5. Cal State Long Beach 289-292-292--873; 6. Cal Davis 302-286-286--874; 7. Georgia State 288-304-291--883; 8. San Diego State 293-302-290--885; 9. Fresno State 291-303-293--887; 10. Wyoming 306-294-291--891; 11. (tie)  Boise State 298-302-296--896; Gonzaga 300-299-297--896; 13. Idaho 299-305-300--904; 14. Nevada 307-302-300--909; 15. Eastern Washington 308-305-308--921; 16. Hawaii 307-304-313--924; 17. Montana State 310-310-307--927; 18. (tie) Portland State 311-300-317--928; Weber State 315-306-307--928; 20. Northern Colorado 308-305-318--931.

     Top individuals -- 1. Kay Hoey, Cal State Long Beach 65-71-71--207; 2. (tie) Emily Childs, Colorado, 68-70-72--210; Alice Kim, Cal Davis 75-67-68--210; 4. (tie) Lisa Maunu, Notre Dame, 71-70-70--211; So-Hyun Park, Notre Dame, 70-66-75--211; 6. Ulrika van Niekerk, Texas Tech, 74-66-72--212; 7. Lee Lopez, Cal State Long Beach 69-70-74--213;  8. (tie) Megan Dowdy, Texas Tech 73-74-68--215; Kasey Claussen, Colorado State, 68-74-73--215; Chelsea Stelzmiller, Cal Davis 75-69-71--215; Malin Enarsson, San Diego State 75-69-71--215; Melanie DeLeon, Nevada, 71-73-71--215.

     Other CU scores -- 16. Emily Talley 73-73-71--217; 36. Dominique Pytlewski 68-77-79--224; 36. Stephanie Simick 77-72-75--224; 56. Julie Kim 81-76-72--229; 65. Cierra Ko* 75-79-77--231; 73. Christine Kim* 77-76-80--233.

     Other CSU scores -- 13. Natalie Stone, Colorado State 74-73-69--216; 32. Melissa Martin 73-79-71--223; 52. Cecilia Edlund 74-76-78--228; 52. Stefanie Ferguson 83-72-73--228; 52. Brianna Espinoza* 74-75-79--228.

     Northern Colorado scores -- 59. Katie Avery 77-76-77--230; 65. Chelsea Silvers 75-76-80--231; 78. Ali Nelson 78-78-78--234; 88. Heather Daviner 78-77-83--238; 98. Shayna Godfrey 86-76-84--246.

   * -- Competing only as individual

      BROOMFIELD -- Emily Childs is a college freshman, but refuses to act the part.

      One month into her career on the University of Colorado women’s golf team, the 18-year-old from Alameda, Calif., has yet to finish outside the top 10 in a college tournament. And on Tuesday, she came in second for the second time in her first three college events.

      Childs posted her second runner-up performance of the season in CU’s Heather Farr Memorial Invitational at the Omni Interlocken Golf Club. Only Kay Hoey of Cal State Long Beach finished better in the 20-team tournament. Hoey came in at 9-under-par 207, three stokes ahead of Childs.

     Childs has gone second, seventh and second so far in her college career, so it’s not difficult to guess where she aims to go next in the tournament standings.

     “I want to win one,” she said. “I just have to make it happen. I’ve been hitting it real good, but I have to start dropping some putts.”

     Childs and another freshman from northern California, Emily Talley, led CU to a third-place team showing in the Farr tournament.

     “They’re good players,“  CU coach Anne Kelly said of the freshmen.  “I see them taking us to the next level.”       

CU Freshman Phenom Finishes Second Again

Childs has led the way for Buffs in her first three college events

By Gary Baines

Colorado Golf Journal, Tuesday, September 30, 2008

CU freshman Emily Childs made 18 birdies in three rounds at the Buffs’ home tournament.