Why do women Golfers Choose Bozeman to play college Golf?

We posed that question to Brittany Basye who had 9 golfers on the Montana State squad this past season with only three of them coming from Montana.  One of her team members is from California which offers the ultimate irony of a young college student who could play golf at home everyday chooses to play college golf at snowbound M-S-U in Bozeman.

During her trip to Shelby and Conrad last weekend for the Golden Triangle Bobcat Club Tailgate party, Coach Basye told us that it's a lot about, what else, skiing.   Janelle Riali, "is a skier and she just fell in love with the place."  Basye said.

There are also other golfers on the team that seem unlikely such as Melissa Hultstrand from Gilbert, Az and Pamela Caldron Rogas from Costa Rica.    Other team members comer from Minnesota, Montana (including Haylee Folkvord of Three Forks and of course Paige Crawford from Colorado Spring, Colorado who became M-S-U's first Big Sky Champion since 1995 when she shot an 8-under 208 at the Big Sky Tournament in Chandler, Arizona this spring.   That included a Tournament record 67 on the final day.

In the winter and early spring when you just can't play golf, Basye (who by the way is from Billings,) says the Bobcats have a first rate practice facility in the old men's locker room.

She notes that it's not only skiing but academics that draws the girls to Bozeman with the current roster majoring in everything from Political Science to Mechanical engineering.    And speaking of academics, Athletic Director Peter Fields who was also at the Tailgate party told us that Montana State Athletes have compiled a cumulative 3.0 GPA for 22 consecutive semesters.

Coach Basye continually told me I just coach, I don't play but on her first tour ever around Marias Valley in Shelby Friday she shot an 83 and she would put many of the men who play it regularly to shame with the long drives.     Golf scholarships in Bozeman......Sounds alright to me.