New look Pride women's golf wraps up 2025-26 opening tournament

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Opening the 2025-26 season at the Mount Mercy University hosted Mustang Fall Invite, the Clarke University women's golf team finished up the two-day event with an eighth place finish on Sunday at Hunters Ridge Golf Course.

The Pride opened the year with a five-woman lineup that consisted of members all in their first year at CU in freshmen Rose Halle, Aubree Hoyle, Sydney Minyen, and Amalia Ortega with the final member of the five-woman team being transfer junior Rose McCartney.

Ortega and Halle were able to make the strongest first impressions for Clarke as both would produce top-20 finishes in the field that would finish thw two-round event with 79 final scores as Ortega led the Pride with a 14th place 161 after a consistent 81 on Saturday then an 80 on Sunday to move up two spots int he standings.

Halle tied for 19th as she shot the team-low score of 80 in Saturday's first round then would put up an 84 on Sunday with McCartney having the third-best two-round score of 179 after an 86 on Saturday and a 93 on Sunday.

Minyen was able to make improvement from round one to round two as she produced a tournament total of 187 after a 99 on Saturday and an 88 on Sunday then Hoyle would shoot a 225 after scores of 108 and 117 respectively.

As a team, the Pride finished with a final stroke total of 691 to finish in eighth place, 10 strokes shy of sixth after ending Saturday in sixth place then just four strokes behind Augustana in seventh as the tournament was won by Indian Hills Community College with matching team scores of 314 each day to win by four strokes over runner-up Morningside with their 628.

Pride women's golf will send their next five golfers in their lineup to compete in their first tournament tomorrow as they'll be joined by the debut of the men's golf team at the Iowa Central Fall Kickoff at Fort Dodge Country Club in Fort Dodge, Iowa.