Women's Golf Looks To Improve With Nervousness Gone
5/10/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
CENTRAL RGIONAL TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
NORMAN, Okla. - Gonzaga University's inaugural round in the NCAA regional field had its ups and downs, much like Bulldog head women's golf coach Brad Rickel thought it might.
The Zags are tied for 21st with Lamar University after 18 holes of the NCAA Central Regional at Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club, shooting an opening-round 303. Raychelle Santos shot a 1-over par 73 to tie for 35th to lead the Bulldogs. Victoria Fallgren and Alice Kim each posted a 76, Han Wu shot 78 and Genavive 'Genna' Dodge a 79 over the 6,298-yard, par 72 University of Oklahoma layout.
"The first day was probably a little bit of what I expected. It's been almost a month since we played a golf tournament, we had finals and we were playing in our first NCAA tournament," Rickel said.
But that's not to say he wasn't satisfied with the effort.
"Raychelle played solid. Victoria played solid but had a crazy lie in front of a bunker. Each player had two or three times where they let the course get the best of them. I think once we get past the fact we are in the regional and get past that nervousness we'll be fine," Rickel said.
The top three teams are separated by just three shots. The University of Florida is at 282 followed by host University of Oklahoma at 283 and Duke University at 284. The top eight teams qualify for the NCAA Championship, with four teams tied for the final two spots at 292 heading into the second round.
Emily Collins of Oklahoma, playing on her home course, is the first-round leader at 67 for a 1-shot advantage over Elcin Ulu of Florida and a 2-stroke edge over six players in a third-place logjam at 69.
Rickel said the course is Bermuda grass like the course the Zags played earlier this year in Texas; the greens are firm, fast and sloped; there are trees, and there's water.
"It's a good course, but because of the weather Wednesday compared to today the holes were playing completely differently," Rickel noted. "All-in-all I didn't think we played that poorly."
Rickel the ideal situation is to be in the top 12 of the draw because those teams get the better weather in the morning. The Bulldogs, who won four tournaments and finished in the top three in nine of 10 events this year, knew they would be up against some strong teams at this stage of the season.
"All those teams shot well. They are good golf teams. We normally don't shoot 303 and be where we are," Rickel said of being in 21st place.
The Bulldogs were averaging 299.76 per round heading into the regional, so their 303 wasn't abnormally high. Gonzaga, which faces a 5:30 a.m. PDT tee time for Friday's second round, will be a different team, according to Rickel.
"I think by tomorrow morning we'll be who we normally are. The cobwebs will be out and we will have gotten past the thought of playing in the first round of the NCAA's. We played the situation instead of the course, we were conscious of being in a big event and it hurt us a little bit," Rickel said. "We got through our first round. If we are better tomorrow I think everything will tighten up a lot more and we'll be back to where we normally are."
With two rounds remaining, Rickel said there's a lot of golf to be played.
"We won't approach Friday and Saturday any differently than we approach any other round," Rickel said. "How we approach everything is to play the best golf we can at this golf course. We've already decided we have to play better golf. When the dust settles at end of the tournament we'll look up and see where we finish."
