After a subpar performance in its first tournament of the season, the Florida women’s golf team will be looking to turn things around as it heads to Chapel Hill, N.C., for the annual Tar Heel Invitational, which begins today.
Coach Emily Glaser and the team had three weeks off from competition to clean up issues from the first tournament.
The team has competed at the Finley Golf Course over the last couple of years and going to the tournament with prior experience at the course will only help the team.
"It’s a tournament we’ve played in the last few years," Glaser said, "so we’re familiar with the golf course, at least for the girls that will be returning to the tournament. … So we’re looking forward to going and playing."
One of the players returning to Finley Golf Course this year will be junior Ursa Orehek.
Orehek struggled two years ago at the course as a freshman when she finished with a score of 23-over-par. Having a solid approach to each hole is imperative to shooting a low score on the course.
"It’s not a tight course, but it’s also not very wide," Orehek said. "You have to have a very good strategy, where to place the golf ball and if you miss the green, you have to have a good short game because the greens are very fast.
"You have a lot of different breaks there, so you have to be comfortable with your short game."
Along with Orehek, sophomore Maria Torres played at Chapel Hill as a freshman.
Torres finished at 5-over-par, which was good enough for a tie for 32nd place. Sophomore Kelly Grassel participated at the tournament as a freshman at Michigan State.
Grassel finished in a tie for 19th place after carding a 2-over-par for the event. Rounding out the Gator lineup is freshman Taylor Tomlinson, who made her collegiate debut in UF’s first tournament of the year.
UF will be facing some of the top teams in the country this weekend, with nine teams ranked in the top-25. Five of the nine teams are in the Southeastern Conference with No. 1 South Carolina and No. 2 Arkansas leading the field.
Winning the tournament is going to be the primary goal for each team at the tournament but for Glaser, playing better and seeing improvement from the Cougar Classic is just as important. The Gators will have their shot starting today, to show Glaser how good the team can really be.
"I just want to see that we’re improving, to me that’s the biggest key, obviously not the way we wanted to finish the first week out," Glaser said. "As long as we keep getting better, we keep practicing better, we keep learning I think that’s going to be key for this team to keep building confidence moving forward in the season."
Follow Luis Torres on Twitter @LFTorresIII
