Completed Event: Women's Golf at Pat Lesser Harbottle Invitational on September 29, 2025 , , T-8th of 15
W Golf
at Pat Lesser Harbottle Invitational
T-8th of 15
Grand Canyon University Athletics
Monday, February 28
Phoenix, Ariz.
Grand Canyon
vs
GCU Invitational
Photo by: Garrett Ohrenberg
Linam win tops team victory's record score
3/1/2022 5:15:00 PM | Women's Golf
Lopes captured 3rd consecutive GCU Invitational title at 4 under par
The Grand Canyon women's golfers found water Tuesday but in the only enjoyable way on GCU Golf Course.
The Lopes \avoided hazards throughout the GCU Invitational to celebrate as three-peat team champions and douse fifth-year senior Alexis Linam with a celebratory shower for her second individual win at the tournament in three years.
GCU has grand goals for this season, so even beating 18 other teams in a three-round tournament with a program-record team score of 4 under par was considered just a start for them.
The entire Lopes lineup of Linam, fellow fifth-year Siripatsorn Patchana (tied for fourth), sophomore Constanza Guerrero (tied for 10th), senior Payton Fehringer (tied for 14th) and sophomore Carly Stroke (tied for 18th) finished in the 104-player field's top 18, while GCU "B" team entry Madison Voisard, a senior, tied with Patchana for fourth place at 1 under par.
Linam entered the final round tied for 12th place but birdied four of her first nine holes in Tuesday to shoot up the leaderboard. After starting her round on the third hole, the Phoenix native from Liberty High School shook off a nervous stretch and birdied No. 18 for the third consecutive round to reach 3 under par.
Only needing a par to win on her closing par-3 hole at No. 2, Linam reached the green, hit an ideal lag putt and tapped in a 2-footer to prevail by one stroke over Seattle U's Samantha Bruce and SMU's Maddi Olson.
"It was probably the scariest putt I've putted in a long time," Linam said.
"I'm just so incredibly thankful to do it with a win and a team win. It was amazing. I was more in my element, just making my putts, not thinking too much, not trying too hard. This was the last day of my last home tournament. I didn't want to leave any shots out there. I was just going to be aggressive and confident and have fun with it."
Linam learned from a spectator that she was leading and bogeyed the next two holes, but she found her resolve with Lopes assistant coach Kelli Bowers walking the last stretch alongside her. With pro goals in her future, Linam said she embraced the pressure because it was the type of situation she strives to have in the future.
"I don't even recognize this person," GCU head coach Lauren Giesecke said of Linam. "She has made a huge, huge flip in her mental game. If she hadn't done that, she would've lost today. I'm really, really pumped for her."
Linam's maturity showed when she shook off a disappointing second round on Monday to birdie two of her last three holes, a stretch that proved to be the difference in taking medalist honors. She also played the par-5 holes at 5 under par for the tournament.
"The putts were finally dropping," said Linam, who sank consecutive 15- to 20-foot birdie putts Tuesday with her parents in the gallery. "I've been hitting it super, super solid for a while, but putting was something I was struggling with. Just overthinking everything. I didn't try too hard today and just went with the flow."
The Lopes outplayed runner-up Santa Clara by five strokes and SMU by six strokes. As a team, GCU had a birdie and three pars on each scoring player's final hole to clinch the title. It was the type of pressure Giesecke wanted to see her team face to close out a victory.
"They handled starting the day pretty well," Giesecke said. "We missed some easy birdie attempts. But instead of being in a state of mind where we need to be a little bit greedy, they say back and said, 'Pars are great. Let's do what we need to do and keep those high scores off the scorecard.'
"We have some big goals coming up. We're headed to Hawaii on Saturday and we look forward to beating these school records that we are setting. That is something the team enjoyed. If we keep having a great spring, our ranking will be close to what we feel it should be and then we should have a lot of confidence heading into the conference. Our end goal is to win conference, go to (NCAA) regionals and then make some noise at regionals."
To see the complete GCU Invitational leaderboard, click here.
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The Lopes \avoided hazards throughout the GCU Invitational to celebrate as three-peat team champions and douse fifth-year senior Alexis Linam with a celebratory shower for her second individual win at the tournament in three years.
GCU has grand goals for this season, so even beating 18 other teams in a three-round tournament with a program-record team score of 4 under par was considered just a start for them.
The entire Lopes lineup of Linam, fellow fifth-year Siripatsorn Patchana (tied for fourth), sophomore Constanza Guerrero (tied for 10th), senior Payton Fehringer (tied for 14th) and sophomore Carly Stroke (tied for 18th) finished in the 104-player field's top 18, while GCU "B" team entry Madison Voisard, a senior, tied with Patchana for fourth place at 1 under par.
Linam entered the final round tied for 12th place but birdied four of her first nine holes in Tuesday to shoot up the leaderboard. After starting her round on the third hole, the Phoenix native from Liberty High School shook off a nervous stretch and birdied No. 18 for the third consecutive round to reach 3 under par.Only needing a par to win on her closing par-3 hole at No. 2, Linam reached the green, hit an ideal lag putt and tapped in a 2-footer to prevail by one stroke over Seattle U's Samantha Bruce and SMU's Maddi Olson.
"It was probably the scariest putt I've putted in a long time," Linam said.
"I'm just so incredibly thankful to do it with a win and a team win. It was amazing. I was more in my element, just making my putts, not thinking too much, not trying too hard. This was the last day of my last home tournament. I didn't want to leave any shots out there. I was just going to be aggressive and confident and have fun with it."
Linam learned from a spectator that she was leading and bogeyed the next two holes, but she found her resolve with Lopes assistant coach Kelli Bowers walking the last stretch alongside her. With pro goals in her future, Linam said she embraced the pressure because it was the type of situation she strives to have in the future.
"I don't even recognize this person," GCU head coach Lauren Giesecke said of Linam. "She has made a huge, huge flip in her mental game. If she hadn't done that, she would've lost today. I'm really, really pumped for her."
Linam's maturity showed when she shook off a disappointing second round on Monday to birdie two of her last three holes, a stretch that proved to be the difference in taking medalist honors. She also played the par-5 holes at 5 under par for the tournament.
"The putts were finally dropping," said Linam, who sank consecutive 15- to 20-foot birdie putts Tuesday with her parents in the gallery. "I've been hitting it super, super solid for a while, but putting was something I was struggling with. Just overthinking everything. I didn't try too hard today and just went with the flow."
The Lopes outplayed runner-up Santa Clara by five strokes and SMU by six strokes. As a team, GCU had a birdie and three pars on each scoring player's final hole to clinch the title. It was the type of pressure Giesecke wanted to see her team face to close out a victory.
"They handled starting the day pretty well," Giesecke said. "We missed some easy birdie attempts. But instead of being in a state of mind where we need to be a little bit greedy, they say back and said, 'Pars are great. Let's do what we need to do and keep those high scores off the scorecard.'
"We have some big goals coming up. We're headed to Hawaii on Saturday and we look forward to beating these school records that we are setting. That is something the team enjoyed. If we keep having a great spring, our ranking will be close to what we feel it should be and then we should have a lot of confidence heading into the conference. Our end goal is to win conference, go to (NCAA) regionals and then make some noise at regionals."
To see the complete GCU Invitational leaderboard, click here.
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Players Mentioned
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
Head Coach Brent Nicoson Meets the Team | August 29, 2024
Friday, February 07