Though her last name is Burden, the Northwestern golfer isn’t feeling the pressure of repeating her third-place finish at last week’s tournament.

Senior Elizabeth Burden was the top finisher for the Wildcats last week. But when NU heads to the Verizon “Mo”Morial Tournament in Houston, Texas on Monday and Tuesday, instead of agonizing about finishing in the top NU spot again, her goal is to do what athletes often forget: have fun.

“I would like to play really well in my last season and just enjoy myself and the team,” Burden said.

The senior looks to improve on the little nuances that come with adjusting to golfing on grass after a winter of practicing indoors.

“It’s always really nice to play on grass — it felt really good to play outside, and I think it had an impact on my short game (last week),” she said.

Burden echoes the sentiments of her teammates, who are striving to improve upon last week’s 13th-place finish out of the 15 teams that were competing — including five Big Ten schools that finished ahead of NU at the Central District Invitational in Parrish, Fla.

“It was our first tournament out, and we hadn’t played on grass since October — even though the rest of us didn’t play well, we saw what we needed to improve,” junior Lauren Grzebien said.

And while the golfers are trying to enjoy themselves, it doesn’t mean that they take their sport lightly. In the 2002 spring season, the Cats were disappointed with their inconsistent play and did not receive a bid to the NCAA tournament — a goal that the team set for itself early in the season. This year they’re focusing on improving each individual round, Grzebien said.