In the Arizona sun, the girl’s golf team prepared for their match by practicing their strokes on the greens. For their first match of the year, the team participated in the Brophy Rodeo tournament Aug. 24 to 26. The games took place at Greyhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, the site of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships.

A week before the official start of the season, Head Coach Branden Augustus organized a bonding day for the team at Sandpiper Golf Club in Santa Barbara. The team played 18 holes, and welcomed Hannah Biggins ’25 to the team, who was formerly on junior varsity.

Biggins said she enjoyed meeting her new teammates.

“The bonding trip at Sandpiper was so much fun,” Biggins said. The course had the most amazing views and it was fun to play in the electric carts. It was great to see my junior varsity team members join us after a long summer and I’m looking forward to more outings like this in the future.”

Biggins said she was eager to contribute to the team for her first match on varsity.

“The Arizona trip was a great experience,” Biggins said. “It was a challenging course and hot there, but I made it through the round with the help and encouragement of our coaches and team.”

The tournament totaled 150 points, and Kaydence Kim ’25 was the top finisher, placing 17th overall. Madi Ushiba ’24 finished in the top 25 out of the 100 players.

Although the weather was over 100 F during the 2-day tournament, Ushiba said she enjoyed playing with the team.

“I made sure to stay hydrated to get through the hot weather,” Ushiba said. “It’s so important to stay hydrated because it can affect my play. It was nice playing with my teammates and getting back to my gold grind.”

Results were announced the day of the matches and the team shot 313 during the first round and 314 in the second. They placed first in California and 6th overall out of the 18 schools that played.