Women's Golf Ends Tough Stretch With Toughest Field, Course
10/3/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
SPOKANE, Wash. - The toughest field and the toughest course await Gonzaga University's women's golf team when they compete in the 30th annual Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational at Sahalee Country Club beginning Monday.
The tournament will be a 54-hole, three-day affair rather than the more standard 54-hole, two-day tournaments that have teams playing 36 holes Monday and a final round Tuesday. Teams will tee off at 9 a.m. Monday, 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and 8 a.m. Wednesday. Sahalee will play to 6,063-yards and par 72. The tourney returns to Sahalee after being held at the Tacoma Country and Golf Club last year. Sahalee has played host to several prestigious tournaments through the years, including the 2010 U.S. Senior Open, 2002 NEC World Championship and 1998 PGA Championship.
The Bulldogs, who will be playing in their fourth straight tournament, will be joined by host University of Washington, University of California, University of Colorado, University of Idaho, University of Nebraska, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, San Jose State University and Washington State University.
Gonzaga head coach Brad Rickel said his team will be tested, both by the course and by the field.
"This is probably the strongest field we'll see this year on the strongest golf course we'll see this year. We have to take all the lessons we're been learning for three weeks and apply them all here. If we don't it will be a long week," Rickel said.
What makes the legendary Sahalee so tough?
"It's probably the narrowest golf course anybody has ever played. It's everything a major championship type of course should be. You have to respect it and take what it gives you. If you try to take more than it offers it will just bite you hard," Rickel said. "When Tom Watson played there he said he thought he'd have to walk down the fairways sideways to keep from bumping his shoulders on the trees."
After struggling early in the season, Rickel was pleased with the effort turned in last week in finishing fourth at the Rose City Collegiate in Aurora, Ore.
"I think we're getting better each week. We're playing two freshmen and a sophomore in every event out of five players. We're young, so we should grow as we go. Our focus has been getting better during this four weeks and I think we're clearly doing that," Rickel said.
The line-up for the Bulldogs will be Victoria Fallgren at No. 1, Han Wu at No. 2, Alice Kim at No. 3, Tai Jade 'TJ' Kliebphipat at No. 4 and Stephanie Corey at No. 5. Although the positioning in the line-up is changed, it's the first time Rickel has used the same five in his line-up in back-to-back tournaments this season. Jessica Howe will play as an individual.
While Rickel thought his squad put together its best 54-hole performance of the season last week, he's still looking for more consistency top to bottom.
"It seems like every round we have one really good score, a second okay score and the third and fourth score have just been a little higher than we need. We have players who are all capable of being our best in any round. It just hasn't seemed to work that way this fall. I think it's probably because of how young we are. If we do put it all together for one round we'll probably shoot the lowest score we've ever shot," Rickel predicted.
Following this week's tournament the Zags will take some time off for mid-term exams, then conclude the fall season Oct. 17-18 at the Hoosier Fall Invitational in Columbus, Ind.
"We will definitely take some time off. Mid-term exams are coming up so we'll take four or five days off. I'm sure some of them will find some time to practice golf but we'll have no team- scheduled activity for four or five days. It's time for them to decompress and make certain they are caught up in their schoolwork and give us a little bit of breathing room before we start working hard again one week before our last event," Rickel said.
