After battling frosty Chicago winds and snow-covered fairways this winter and early spring, the Northwestern women’s golf team finally had the chance to hone its swings in comfortable temperatures at the Lady Boilermaker Invitational this weekend.
The weather was fair and the course was dry, but the Wildcats failed to capitalize on the favorable conditions, finishing last in the field of 13 teams that included six other Big Ten squads.
For the sixth time this season, senior Elizabeth Burden led the Cats with a 16th-place finish. Sophomores Ina Kim and Mary Ellen Grzebien followed at 33rd and 54th.
“Obviously, we fell short of our expectations, but at any point in time we could turn around and beat (the Big Ten teams),” NU coach Chris Regenberg said. “I don’t necessarily feel that there is a big gap in talent between the teams, I just think that we need to all get on the same page and start having some consistent rounds.”
NU started strong, settling into sixth place after the first round and trailing first-place Tennesee by 15 strokes. But then catastrophe struck the Cats, as they dropped into last place after shooting 44-over later that day in the second round. The Cats finished with a strong third round, but it wasn’t enough to bring them out of the cellar.
“Everybody has their individual problems with their game, but going in, I thought that mechanically we should be confident,” Grzebien said. “I think it was more that our confidence wasn’t there because of the way we have played this season. We lacked some of the confidence and conviction that we needed.”
Despite her top-20 finish, Burden was not completely happy about her play at Purdue. She started out slowly with a 75, and then jumped up to 82 during the windy second session before shooting a satisfying 1-over on her last round. Though the senior thought her play was only “OK,” Regenberg was pleased with her effort.
“Elizabeth’s play this weekend was really quite impressive,” Regenberg said. “She seemed to balance well in her game — her short game balanced well with her long game. Mentally, she had some good fire in her to finish strongly.”
The tournament was especially disappointing for NU, as the team is still without a top-10 finish this season. With only one tournament left before the Big Ten championships, the Cats are running out of time to get out of a season-long funk.
NU will be back in action April 19-20 at the Lady Buckeye Spring Invitational in Columbus, Ohio. Regenberg said she expected her team to perform better because the course is familiar territory — the Cats finished sixth out of 15 teams on Ohio State’s Scarlet Course in the tournament last season.
But before the Cats can take advantage of the Buckeyes’ course, they know they have to put the past few tournaments behind them.
“It is getting down to the wire, and every tournament where we don’t play well, it puts more pressure on us,” Grzebien said. “It shouldn’t affect how we do in Big Tens, as long as we work hard and try to get past the past few weeks and have a solid showing at Ohio State.”
