RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (UNLVRebels.com) – After winning the conference’s historic first championship playoff, the UNLV women’s golf team captured the 2025 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Championship Thursday on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club (Par 72, 6,286 yards). This marks the program’s eighth league championship overall and fifth under 14th-year head coach Amy Bush-Herzer.
PLAYOFF HISTORY: Breaking a tie with San Jose State, the Rebels secured the victory on the second playoff hole and the course’s hole No. 1. A 40-foot birdie putt made by senior McKenzi Hall, as well as a pair of pars scored by seniors Mayumi Umezu and Toa Yokoyama sealed the deal
FINAL-ROUND COMEBACK: Facing a two-shot deficit to start the day, the Scarlet & Gray bested SJSU by two shots with a final-round 8-over 296 to pull into a tie at 18-over for the tournament and force the playoff. Leading the charge, Foong carded a 2-under 70 and Yokoyama, who shot a 2-over 74, made the team’s only birdie on the 17th hole that helped keep the Rebels’ hopes alive. Hall added a 2-over 70 and Matsui rounded out the scorecard at 6-over on another day filled with strong winds.
REBEL ROUNDUP: Yokoyama and Foong each finished in the top 5, with the former taking third at even-par 216 for the tournament and the latter coming in fourth at 2-over 218. Chipping in another pair of top-20 finishes, Hall (+8) landed in 12th and Matsui (+12) followed in 18th. Nearly cracking the top-25, Umezu (+15) ended the event in 26th.
QUOTABLE: “I’m super proud of this team and we just kept having fun. We’ve had a beautiful year, with a lot of success and great things to talk about. I think it goes back to the whole picture of this year which makes this so special. We opened our Excellence Center with the help of a lot of people in Las Vegas. We have incredible support from golf courses in Las Vegas. And we have this team that’s so special.”
– UNLV Head Coach Amy Bush-Herzer
UP NEXT: UNLV will now turn its attention to the NCAA Women’s Golf Selection Show on April 23 at 8 a.m. PT to find out its NCAA Regional destination as an automatic qualifier.
OTHER NOTES:
- With the victory, the Rebels have now posted two victories as part of seven top-2 finishes during the 2024-25 campaign. Their other win came at Denver’s Ron Moore Intercollegiate.
- This was the first MW trophy hoisted by UNLV since the 2018 conference championship, which was also played at Mission Hills Country Club.
- The Scarlet & Gray’s four seniors – Hall, Matsui, Umezu and Yokoyama – all notched career-high MW Championship finishes. It was Foong’s first appearance at the league tournament.