Sept. 24, 2014 By Christopher Clapper
The women’s golf season is in full swing, and the Whitewater Warhawks are battling each week to rise up in the WIAC standings.
Last week at the Illinois Wesleyan Fall Fling the ’Hawks improved on their day one score of 363 to shoot a 349 on day two and finish fifth out of 10 teams.
Junior Sammie Leibham led the ’Hawks, tying for eighth out of 56 golfers. She shot a day one score of 88, followed by a strong 82 on day two.
“This was a difficult course,” Leibham said. “The greens were playing extremely fast, so I would’ve liked to have played better on Saturday [day 1] because I shot an 88, but on Sunday [day 2] I felt better and shot an 82.”
As for the team’s finish, Leibham was happy with the overall effort but still thought they could’ve golfed better.
“I think the girls that played did pretty well for the course because it was really hard, and they‘re not as long of hitters so it played really long for them,” Leibham said. “I think overall we did pretty decent, but we would have liked to finish higher.”
The ’Hawks were not playing with all of their top five golfers, which head coach Brett Weber said made for an interesting afternoon.
“I think the biggest factor that influenced the score for us was the length of the golf course,” Weber said. “We were missing two of our top five, and I think they could’ve handled the course a little better.”
After a disappointing first day, many of the golfers turned their weekends around and improved their overall scores the second day.
“To go in a positive direction forward was encouraging,” Weber said. “Sammie came back and shot an 82 after an 88, which is where I think she should be most of the time.”
With their strong finish on Sunday at the Wesleyan Fall Fling, the ’Hawks hope to use the momentum to give them a good showing on their home course next weekend, as they host the Whitewater Fall Classic at Delbrook Golf Club.
The tournament consists of 13 teams and begins Sept. 26 at 1 p.m. with day two play beginning at 9 a.m. Sept. 27.
