This past weekend the UW-Whitewater Warhawk Women’s Golf team traveled to Reedsburg to play in the three-day WIAC Championships. Starting Oct. 6, round one turned out to be an unfavorable performance for the team, as they shot their all time low of 334.
“There was a little bit of a struggle with the execution, and the cold weather on Friday kinda got to us,” said head coach Andrea Wieland.
With a high of only 56 degrees, it was a cold shock to all the golfers. With similar conditions for the following couple of days, the team knew they had to adjust in order to continue onto the final Sunday round.
“We need to just go out there and do what we know we can do,” said Wieland.
Round two on Saturday presented quite an impressive turn around for the women’s golf team. The girls jumped down to 310 for the day.
“On Saturday we adjusted to the weather and were more mentally prepared, thinking not about what we would shoot, but just worrying about how it was out there on the course,” said Lily Sheppard, a fifth year golfer.
Sheppard has played in five conference championships as a Warhawk. This past weekend she shot an 81, 79, and 79 for the respective rounds, finishing third overall in the tournament, just behind fellow Warhawk Kallie Lux who finished second overall.
After a successful round two, and a full adjustment to the cooler weather, the golfers entered into the Sunday round three and shot a 315.
“There’s a lot of time to think when you’re playing golf, so we just really had to use all the tools we had to stay present and be in the moment, and that’s what we did really well the last two days,” said Wieland.
After a long weekend of golf, the girls are excited to bring back a first place win for Whitewater.
“We persevered, and I am really proud of everybody on this team. We are super happy and grateful that this is our seventh win in a row,” said Sheppard.
Looking ahead, the golf team is heading to Florida this upcoming Friday for an invitational named Golf Week. The top Division III golf teams are invited to this tournament, the Warhawks being one of these teams.
“We’re ready to be able to relax a little bit and hopefully just continue to work on our short game and make some more putts. That’s our plan,” said Wieland.