CEDAR CITY, Utah, Sept. 2 – Southern Utah University's women's golf team opens its fall golf season Friday when the Thunderbirds compete at  the Weber State Invitational. The one-day tournament is being contested over the par 71, 6,103-yard Davis Park Golf Club in Kaysville, Utah.

Scheduled to compete for the Thunderbirds are juniors Sadie Palmer and Kacy Buckner, sophomores Jamie Coking and Brittany Edwards and freshman Kaohi Loo. Freshman Rose Pellatier will compete as an individual.

In addition to SUU and host Weber State, Utah Valley and Idaho State are scheduled to field teams for the tourney.

“I'm excited to see how we play this week,” SUU Coach Richard Church said. “I think Sadie has a chance to win the individual championship and our team has a chance to win the team title. Sadie and Kacy are both experienced college players and both Jamie and Brittany got a lot of experience last year, so it will be interesting to see how they play. Kaohi and Rose will be playing in their first collegiate tournament, and freshmen always have a learning curve, but we've had freshmen play well at this tournament.”

Last Year At The Weber State Invitaional: SUU finished tied for second with Utah Valley after shooting 312 over the par 71, 5,979-yard Davis Park Golf Club. The two teams finished 10 strokes behind host Weber State. Idaho State finished fourth at 320.

Sophomore Sadie Palmer led the way for SUU, finishing second at 73, two strokes off the pace of WSU's Amanda Snyder. SUU sophomores Kacy Buckner and Mikayla Williamson finished tied for seventh at 78, while freshman Jamie Coking was 13th at 80. SUU junior Morgan Kerber finished 15th at 81, with freshman Brittany Edwards 17th. Williamson was an independent competitor and didn't factor into SUU's scoring.

The Coach: Richard Church (Utah '89) is in his 10th season as head golf coach and his 15th on the staff at Southern Utah. Prior to taking over the program from former Coach John Evans, Church spent four seasons as the Thunderbirds' assistant coach. During his tenure on the SUU staff, Church has coached five academic all-Americans, one Mid-Continent Conference medalist, two Mid-Con runner-ups and the University's first NCAA post-season competitor in golf. He has also seen the team finish second in the league four times since SUU began competing in the Mid-Con in 1997-98.

Last Time Out: – Southern Utah struggled to a final-round 342 to slip two and finish fifth at The Summit League Women's Golf Championships on Tuesday. Sadie Palmer finished 14th to lead the Thunderbirds.

After shooting back-to-back rounds of 325 on Monday the Thunderbirds were in third place heading into the final round but all but one SUU player, Jamie Coking, shot her worst round of the tournament on Tuesday. The result was a final-round score of 342 that allowed UMKC and Western Illinois to move past the Thunderbirds in the final standings.
   
SUU finished at 992, well off the pace of host and tournament champion Oral Roberts, which shot 932. Palmer, who was seventh following the second round shot a final-round 86 to finish at 244 while Mikayla Williamson shot 86 as well to slip from 10th to 18th at 246. Coking finished 20th at 248 after a final-round 83, Kacy Buckner was 28th at 254, Morgan Kerber finished 29th at 255.