Denise Cashmore
This year’s MountainView Collegiate Women’s Golf Tournament was held at The Preserve Golf Club for the second year in a row. The event, held March 19 to 22, hosted 16 teams from coast-to-coast, and was a perfect way to honor the talent of young women in golf during the same month as International Women’s Day.
MPWGA member and resident, Jo Helms, has been the volunteer coordinator for the tournament for 18 years. According to Helms, her role has “evolved from getting just 18 volunteers to almost 250 now, and this number does not include the number of host homes who house the players and coaches. These 250 volunteers provide on-course shuttling, scoring, sometimes spotting, and donating money and bottled water. We have a team of volunteer committee members: Laura Benson, Deb Bunker, Ginger Cannon, Raye Cobb, Phil Gray ,who manages the rules officials, Gary Hodges who is the resident photographer (which includes a video slideshow that is sent out to all the coaches), and Lori Hill, who coordinates all the housing.”
Helms said the tournament has already been booked for next year, and is a revenue generator for the SaddleBrooke community. In addition, residents look forward to hosting the teams every year, and often follow the progress of these star athletes. For example, Maria Jose Marin, who has competed in the MountainView Collegiate, won the 2026 Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA), setting a new tournament record of 14-under par (202).
As for this year, Iowa State won the MountainView Collegiate tournament, finishing with a team score of 844 (-20). Texas Tech followed in second at 844 (-16), while Denisa Vodickova (Texas Tech) secured the individual title with a 9-under 207, winning by one stroke. Check out mvcollegiate.wordpress.com for more results.