At the Florida Challenge on Jan. 30, the first test for coach Emily Glaser’s freshmen golfers was a grueling 11-hour, 36-hole gauntlet of cold weather and stiff competition.
After a tough start, the young Gators ended up acing that test.
“From a coach’s perspective, I think we started out a little slow in the morning,” Glaser said. “I think we didn’t get off to the start we wanted.”
On that cold Monday morning, all five of Florida’s players shot over par in the first round. But the difference between that first round and the second was obvious: Three of the five players were under par, while the Gators added five more birdies on the back 18 than they had in the morning.
“There’s a reason that we’ve recruited them here to the University of Florida,” Glaser said. “It’s because they’re fantastic players, high-level players.”
Carlotta Ricolfi, one of Glaser’s freshman recruits and a member of the Italian National Team, played a huge role in helping the Gators overcome a sluggish early morning at the Black Diamond Ranch in Lecanto, shooting 3-under par in the second round after accounting for four bogies and a triple bogey in the first.
Ricolfi was added to the team’s lineup earlier that morning when fellow freshman Elin Esborn of Sweden suffered an injury to her right wrist and could not participate.
“I’m working on my mental aspect,” Ricolfi said. “I try not to change anything and play the same way. Obviously to be on the team makes you want to do better, but I try to control this and just go out there and play my best.”
Added Glaser: “There’s a certain type of learning curve for freshmen. That’s what she’ll kind of be battling a little bit is just trying to get some tournament experience under her belt and get comfortable.”
The Gators travel west to Palos Verdes, California, to compete in the 3-day, 54-hole Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge against 15 other universities from Sunday to Tuesday. They’ll have to deal with out-of-state rival No. 25 Alabama and represent the only other SEC competition in the field of 16.
For Glaser, this is only another test.
“We really have to go out there and try to have our A-games,” she said.
Contact Morgan McMullen at mmcmullen@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @morganmcmuffin.
Karolina Vlckova (right) celebrates with coach Emily Glaser during the 2015 SunTrust Gator Invitational at UF's Mark Bostick Golf Course.
