Coming off a victory in their last event, the Bobcats have found a competitive advantage that can be difficult for some teams to find midseason.
“It sparks a competitive spirit in the girls again,” coach Kelly Ovington said about winning. “We’re three events into the season and it starts to drag a little bit and we’ve got three more to go. It lights that fire again that picks up the team and gets things going.”
Ohio will play again this weekend at the Lady Colonel Classic in Richmond, Ky., as they return to the more traditional stroke play format after last week’s 10-2 match play win against Bowling Green.
Arlington Golf Course will host to the event, in which Ohio finished 10th last season, but Ovington said Ohio will look for a better outcome this time.
“Hopefully we can get four scores in the 70s that will put us in the running so I think it’s very feasible,” she said. “We had splashes of good scores last year with some averages scores but overall I think the team is improving.”
Five of Ohio’s six golfers who participated in the event last season returned to the team this year including Megan Weaver, who shot a first-day best 73 in the event.
The six that will make the trip this weekend include the four who placed in last year’s tournament (Weaver, her sister Meryl, Jordan Fesh, and Erin Cahill), Sarah Tranelli and freshman Kara Brinkmann. With five out of the six having already seen the course, coach Ovington said the experience will help them.
“I think it will give them some confidence going in kind of already having an idea how greens break and how they hold and just based on how you want to play each hole,” she said. “It’s always nice to have some veterans on a trip to help the freshmen kind of get an idea of what to look for.”
First round action will begin Saturday and the tournament will conclude Sunday afternoon.
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