PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Under the direction of second-year head coach Christopher Stokes, Bethune-Cookman Women's Golf opens the spring portion of the 2022-23 schedule this weekend, as the Wildcats travel to the Lady Bison Bay Point Classic in Panama City, Florida. The three-round, three-day event is to be housed at Bay Point Golf Club and begins Sunday, Feb. 5.
 
ABOUT THE COURSE
This year's Lady Bison Bay Point Classic takes place at Bay Point Golf Club in Panama City, Florida. The course will play as a par 72, 5,971-yard event. The Nicklaus Course opened in September 2005 and is the first Nicklaus Design in Northwest Florida. In summer of 2018, the course underwent a greens renovation to Tif-Eagle Ultra-Dwarf Bermuda-Grass Greens as well as a green-side bunker renovation. A great test for all golfers, the Nicklaus course features five sets of tees stretching from 4,100 to 7,100 yards.
 
Each day's round will begin at 7:30 a.m., with daily results posted to GolfStat.com.
 
WILDCATS IN THE FIELD
1. Skylar Kew (Fr.) – Dundas, Ontario (Canada)
2. Kamary Leaf (Soph.) – Brownsburg, Ind.
3. Kyleigh Leaf (R-Jr.) – Brownsburg, Ind.
4. Emma Hastie (Sr.) – Buffalo, N.Y.
5. Jordan Davis (Fr.) – St. Petersburg, Fla.
 
QUOTES FROM STOKES
"It'll be a good measuring stick for us going forward. This weekend's field has some of the toughest competition that we'll see all spring. I am excited to see what we can do this spring, and I love that we're starting with a field as competitive as the one in the Lady Bison Classic at a wonderful golf course."
 
"We've been working on mindset during the winter and off-season. We also spent a lot of time on course management and decision-making. We want to make sure we're never in a spot that we can't recover from as a team."
 
LAST TIME OUT FOR BCU
In only his second event as Bethune-Cookman head coach, Harry Stokes' Wildcats are atop the SWAC, as they finish first at the SWAC Fall Invitational in Birmingham, Alabama. The event, held at RTJ Oxmoore Valley, was shortened to only a single day after a lengthy lightning delay forced an early end to the Invitational, but the Wildcats made their mark on day one – that was all they needed.
 
The Wildcats took first place after a team score of 336 on the Ridge Course, one stroke better than second-place Alabama State. The entire field was separated by only nine strokes.
 
Skylar Kew and Kamary Leaf led the way – each shot a day-one 82 to tie for third on the overall leaderboard. Emma Hastie and Kyleigh Leaf were not far behind, each posting an 86 to tie for eighth overall.
 
For Stokes, Tuesday's win is just the first step towards a return to greatness for BCU Golf.
 
NEXT UP
Bethune-Cookman next competes at the Alabama State Spring Classic in Pratville, Alabama on February 19-20.
 
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