Colorado freshman Ananthi Vivek finished in a tie for 15th place at the Red Rocks Invitational, held Sunday at Oakcreek Country Club in Sedona, Arizona. Vivek shot a 2-under-par 70 in the final round, marking her first under-par round as a Colorado Buffalo and moving up ten spots on the leaderboard.
Vivek completed the 54-hole event hosted by Northern Arizona University with a total score of five-over par. She was just four strokes away from breaking into the top ten. After opening with a 77 on Friday, she improved to a 74 on Saturday by making par on sixteen of eighteen holes. “I was pretty consistent,” Vivek said. “I played very ‘regulation golf’ and tried to keep myself in play as much as possible. I got better at eliminating errors with each day as I learned how to navigate the course.”
On Sunday, Vivek started strong with an early birdie on her third hole and added two more birdies later in her round while limiting mistakes to just one bogey. “One of my goals for the season is to make more birdies a round,” Vivek said. “So my intent with each round was to fight to give myself as many chances as possible. I wasn’t worried about the putts falling in, I just wanted to have those chances in this event. Although I didn’t make a ton of birdies, in this process of ‘giving myself more chances’ I ended up making less bogeys which also helped my score.”
Colorado assistant coach Mia Landegren praised Vivek’s performance and adaptability during the tournament: “Ananthi has a very high golf IQ and is able to learn and adapt quickly during her round,” Landegren said. “The first two days she didn’t make many putts and knew she had to adjust a few of her reads. She did that nicely today and really capitalized on the opportunities she had, making three birdies. She also did a great job at demonstrating smart golf, getting back into play when she needed to, and eliminating big mistakes with only one bogey today. I’m really proud of her and I’m excited to see her progress as she is trending nicely in the right direction.”
Classmate Brenna Higgins also competed for Colorado, tying for 39th place after shooting her best round—a 74—on Friday’s opening day.
Landegren reflected positively on both players’ experiences: “I’m really glad we had this opportunity to have Brenna and Ananthi compete in the Red Rock Invitational,” Landegren said. “It was a great learning experience for all three of us. Ananthi played really solid golf today and it was her first time shooting under par in a tournament at CU. She learned a lot this week and I know that being able to shoot under par only will help with her confidence moving forward.”
Northern Arizona won the team competition at ten-under par, finishing seven strokes ahead of Gonzaga University. Grace Lee from Gonzaga and Amy Hodgkins from Northern Arizona shared medalist honors at six-under par.
Colorado’s women’s golf team will next compete at the Chevron Silverado Showdown scheduled for April 6-8 in Napa, California.
