Looking to continue its recent run of success at the Cougar Classic in Charleston, S.C., the Florida women’s golf team is preparing itself for the first tournament of fall. UF will be sending a lineup that includes former tournament champion, senior Camilla Hedberg, and freshman Taylor Tomlinson.
Hedberg won the individual portion of the Cougar Classic in 2012 when she shot 13-under-par and was four strokes ahead of second-place finisher Lindy Duncan of Duke.
Hedberg struggled at the tournament last season, as she finished 10-over-par, but she is using her performance from last year as the motivation she needs to bounce back and repeat her winning play in the fall.
"It’s my senior year, so I kind of want to end on a good note and play good golf," Hedberg said.
For Hedberg, the individual championship in Charleston was her first collegiate title. It came her sophomore year, where at one point she was rated as the No. 1 women’s golfer in the country by Golfweek. She ended up being awarded first-team Southeastern Conference honors that season.
Taylor Tomlinson on the other hand will be making her collegiate debut.
The Gainesville native comes to UF with high expectations as she was ranked No. 2 in the state of Florida and No. 10 in Golfweek’s girls’ junior ranking for the 2014 class. Tomlinson said she has been embraced by her teammates in the first week leading up to the tournament and she is ready to go.
"They’ve really taken me in and gotten really close with them," Tomlinson said, "so it’s going to be a really good time with them and seeing what I can do and what our team can do."
UF has won back-to-back titles as a team at Charleston and will be looking for a third consecutive title.
Hedberg said the team is preparing for a possible three-peat by staying within themselves and taking the tournament one day at a time.
"We’re pretty calm about it, we don’t want to talk too much about goals, obviously all of us want to win, but we don’t want to go there having that in mind," Hedberg said. "We just want to focus on the process and go step by step and do what we got to do and then give the best we have."
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Camilla Hedberg celebrates after shooting a birdie during the third round of the SunTrust Women’s Gator Invitational.
