Holes No. 10, 11 and 12 at Sewailo Golf Club are the hell and highwater of Tucson golf, a stretch of holes so difficult it’s like trying to hit a Nolan Ryan fastball with a broom.
I call it the Devil’s Playground, but in the first round of the Pac-12 women’s golf championship Monday, a 25-mph headwind made holes 10, 11 and 12 more like the Devil’s Workshop.
No team broke par, which is mind-blowing considering that Arizona State, Stanford, UCLA, USC and Arizona are ranked among the nation’s top 12 teams. A year ago, when the Pac-12 championship was played on a more-welcoming Bay Area course, it took 18-under-par to win it.
“I’ve seen the wind blow really hard out here,” said UA junior Krystal Quihuis, “but nothing like this.”
A year ago, Quihuis, a Salpointe Catholic grad and two-time state champion, finished fifth in the Pac-12 finals. If you were making book on this week’s field — even though it includes four of the top women’s amateur golfers in the world: Stanford’s Andrea Lee and Casey Danielson, UCLA’s Lilia Vu and Arizona sophomore Haley Moore — Quihuis would’ve been a smart pick.
Sewailo is her team’s home course. She knows where not to hit it, which is as important as knowing where to hit it.
But on Monday Quihuis shot 77. Moore shot 78; her so-called “worst” round of the year had been 73. Stanford’s Danielson shot 79. Her season’s average is 70.
“To tell you how tough it was, Stanford is 8-over par and they’re No. 1 in the nation with four tournament victories this year,” said Arizona coach Laura Ianello. “It was just one of those odd things.”
On Monday, the Wildcats shot a combined 7-over-par on Nos. 10-12. After her tee shot at No. 10, a twisting, uphill, 570-yar par 5, the wind forced Quihuis to use back-to-back 3-woods to reach the green.
She got a par. It must’ve felt like a birdie.
Nos. 11 and 12 weren’t any easier. Both played against the wind (and sometimes in sudden crosswind). Both are 400-yard par-4s with a garden of fairway bunkers and water lurking where you least expect it.
UCLA, which by the luck of the draw started earlier in the day, before the wind peaked, shot 2-over par to assume the lead in the three-day tournament. ASU, which is ranked No. 2 in the Golfweek poll, a victim of later tee times, shot 19-over. While winning the Ping Invitational and the Clover Cup earlier this spring, ASU shot a combined 51-under par.
Either way, with strong winds forecast again Tuesday, the 2016 Pac-12 championship appears to be anyone’s to win, even for Arizona, which is 15 strokes behind the Bruins. The Wildcats probably can’t play any (ahem) less effectively than they did Monday.
Ianello coached Arizona to the 2010 and 2015 Pac-12 championships, the school’s seventh and eighth women’s golf titles, although strangely none of those championships came in Tucson.
The UA has won in Walla Walla, Washington, twice in Eugene, Oregon, and twice on ASU’s Karsten facility, but when the Wildcats played host to the 1996 and 2006 championships, the Sun Devils and Bruins were the champs.
So much for home-course advantages.
It isn’t often that an Arizona golf coach has a 1-2 punch to match Moore and Quihuis, and it might be a bit until Ianello can find two more like them. Both are considering entering the LPGA Qualifying School in late summer. For Quihuis, who joins Salpointe/Michigan State’s Sara Brown Radley, Santa Rita/Furman’s Vicki Suhocki and Sahuaro/Hawaii’s Cindy Rarick on the Mount Rushmore of Tucson women’s college golfers, this could be her final Pac-12 tournament.
“Golf can be up and down, so after a day like today I try to stay positive,” she said. “It was a little challenging, but we all think we can get back in it.”
Quihuis, who once shot a 65 to win the Tucson City Women’s Amateur by eight strokes, grew up with golf clubs in her hands.
Her father, former Tucson High and Pima College standout Albert Quihuis, was her inspiration. By the time she was in the fourth grade, Krystal and her father went to Phoenix to watch UA legends Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa on the LPGA Tour. By 10 she was playing in the U.S. Kid’s Championship in North Carolina.
After winning two state championships at Salpointe, Quihuis turned down an offer to play at ASU and has been a productive regular in Arizona’s lineup for three years. In 2015, she was the Pac-12 freshman of the year.
“Krystal is by far one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met,” said Ianello. “She’s a grinder. She’ll never quit on you, never uses excuses, never says ‘I’m sick’ or ‘I need a day off.’ She’s gotten tougher and more mature. She’ll come back strong Tuesday.”
As always, her team is going to need it.
