Final results: 2023 ʻĀnuenue Spring Break Classic at Kā’anapali
Zoe Campos of UCLA held her 36-hole lead and took home the trophy Wednesday in the 2023 ʻĀnuenue Spring Break Classic at Kā’anapali posting a 66-67-71 (-12), two strokes ahead of Tulane’s Carla Bernat. Team Pepperdine finished the 54-hole event at 846 (-18), seven shots ahead of Denver.
Pepperdine Head Coach, Laurie Gibbs thanked the host coach, Julie Brooks and her University of Hawaiʻi team during the awards presentation. “Kā’anapali is such a special place to come to and we are so happy and blessed to be here. I want to thank Kā’anapali Golf Courses for opening up their facility to a college golf event – it is so special to play a course like this – it is so amazing and beautiful here in Maui and we so appreciate it.”
Gibbs continued, “We had a lot of fun out there this week with UCLA and Denver, it was tight, but it was exciting and that is what college golf is all about.” Regarding her team, “They are awesome, these young ladies have worked so hard – it’s all the time and effort and their belief in themselves and their games, and everything we have done to really elevate (their game).” This was Pepperdine’s third win this 2022-2023 season – their other two wins came at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic and the Golf Iconic Classic.
Zoe Campos talked about her mindset going into the final round: “I just really wanted to stay steady and have the same mindset I had the first two days. I wanted to stay calm throughout the whole day and that’s what I did.” She added, “The back nine, I struggled a bit to make some birdies, but I did make some par saves. When it came down to the last few holes, I just said, ok just give yourself a chance. On that last hole finally, some relief came down on me.”
About the course, Campos said, “I thought the course was really fun – the greens are definitely really tough, especially because of all the tiers – you have to be on the right tier to make some putts – ya, I really liked it.”
Team Denver and Pepperdine were tied heading into the final round. It came down to the finishing few holes on the Royal Kā’anapali Course, with a protected green on the par 3 17 th and a lagoon lined fairway and green on 18. Many a tournament has been lost or won on these famed finishing holes. Denver Alyson Bean placed 3 rd at 207 (-9) and teammate Anna Krekling T13 at 215 (-1) for the week.
Tulane’s Carla Bernat finished in second place for the week at 206 (-10) and made an eagle on the par 4 14 th playing 380 yards. As a team, Tulane placed 5 th overall this week with additional teammate standouts, Sandra Vazquez T17 and Miriam Emmert T21.
Individual player, Sadie Englemann of Stanford paced 4 th overall at 208 (-8). Stanford had three individuals compete this week at Kā’anapali.
Maui-born Reese Guzman finished T5 at 209 (-7) with teammate Lion Higa. Guzman is no stranger to competing at Kā’anapali, where she was a two-time Maui Interscholastic League Champion and state runner-up at Kā’anapali, before playing at Pepperdine.
The Maui High School girls team and coach, Brenda Rego came out to watch Guzman on Wednesday. The entourage did not interfere with her game, and she was seen after the round chatting with the junior golfers and former coach. Guzman T5 in her 2021 season at the Bruin Wave Invitational – this week’s total was 17 strokes better than the Wave Invitational.