Jodi Ewart, ups and downs on final day of Mountain West Women's Conference Championship.

Jodi Ewart fails in hat-trick bid but is

named Player of Year for third time

Jodi Ewart, the 21-year-old Curtis Cup player from Catterick, Yorkshire, probably did not know where to laugh or cry at the conclusion of the Mountain West Women's Conference championship at Black Horse Golf Club, Seaside in California yesterday.

Jodi's last round of 78 cost her a third consecutive individual title but her college, New Mexico University, won the team title - which is all-important in US college golf - and later she became the first player to be named Mountain West Women's Conference Player of the Year for a third year in a row.

Jodi, a junior (third year) student, had rounds of 74, 73 and 78 for a total of 225 over the par-72, 6027yd course, which earned her joint fourth place after starting the final round in second place.

In difficult, windy conditions she had a double bogey 6 at the second and bogeys at the first, sixth, 11th and 18th in halves of 40 and 38. She did not have a single birdie in the third round after picking up five over the first 36 holes. She also had a double bogey 6 at the ninth in the first round.

Even a 73 in the final round would have been good enough for Jodi to complete a hat-trick of titles as all the scores went up.

Winner with a total of five-over-par 221 was Jonelle Martinez (Wyoming University) who got one hand on the title with a 70 in the first round, the best score of the championship. She followed that up with scores of 75 and 76. Jonelle actally had a double bogey in each of her three rounds but she shot 11 birdies over the 54 holes to compensate.

She won by two shots from a Jodi Ewart team-mate, Britney Choy, who scored 74, 75 and 74 for 223.

New Mexico (903) won the team title with ease from Texas Christian (917) with the University of Nevada Las Vegas third on 920 in a field of seven teams.

LEADING INDIVIDUAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3 x 72)

221 Jonelle Martinez (Wyoming) 70 75 76.

223 Britney Choy (New Mexico) 74 75 74.

224 Therese Koelbaek (UNLV) 72 76 76.

225 Brooke Beeler (Texas Christian) 75 73 77, Jodi Ewart (New Mexico) 74 73 78.

Field of 35 players

LEADING TEAM TOTALS

903 New Mexico.

917 Texas Christian.

920 UNLV

Field of seven teams.