Campbell-Wood going for third win at Southwest Arizona Women's Golf Championships

It's the third go-around for Cocopah's Southwest Arizona Women's Golf Championships, and for the third time Carrie Campbell-Wood has her eyes on the hardware.

Campbell-Wood won both previous tournaments and keeps coming back for a multitude of reasons.

“It's a fun event,” she said. “It's challenging with the tightness of the course, and I have to come back and defend.”

The tournament consists of 10 different championship flights and will kick off at noon on Feb. 23 at Cocopah RV and Golf Resort.

The event has grown tremendously since its inception in 2011 and expanded its footprint.

“We've increased our participation in the San Diego area over 100 percent,” said tournament chairwoman Anita Ponton. “In the local area we just keep growing and growing. It's hosted at Cocopah but that doesn't mean it's just a Cocopah event. It's for the southwest and for women all over the state of Arizona and Southern California.”

As of Thursday there were 92 participants. The deadline for registration is Monday, Feb. 18.

Another reason Campbell-Wood keeps coming back is the tournament features a gross-only scoring system, which benefits low-handicap golfers.

“We really haven't changed that much,” Ponton said. “We listened to the comments of the participants and that's why they come back year after year. We've just made minor changes to the banquet and things like that but the tournament itself has stayed the same, nothing's really changed.”

One change they are reversing is the inclusion of the Marine Color Guard for the opening ceremonies.

“We didn't have it last year, but they've requested it come back so that's what we're going to do,” Ponton said.

Campbell-Wood recently participated in the Yuma Country Club Invitational.

“I played pretty well and enjoyed that a lot so I'm looking forward to coming back,” she said. “I think my game's actually doing pretty good right now.”