The first stage of their quest begins today as the Wildcats tee off in the first round of the NCAA Championship Regionals.
For the sixth time in the last seven years, the Northwestern women’s golf team will have the opportunity to compete for the national championship.
After finishing fifth in the Big Ten Championships, the Cats learned their postseason fate the following day. The team was seeded 16th in the Central Region and would be heading to College Station, Texas, to play at the Traditions Club at Texas A&M.
If the Cats are to advance to the next round, they will need to do it while facing the toughest competition they’ve seen all year.
The Central Region includes No.1 Duke, the top-ranked team in the Golfweek rankings, No. 6 Southern California, No. 7 Pepperdine and No. 12 Texas A&M.
Because the field is so difficult, the Cats are not sure what to expect.
“I don’t think any of the girls have any expectations because it’s such a competitive field,” Alice Kim said. “We are just going to play the best we can and see how that goes.”
The postseason field includes 63 teams divided into three different 21-team regions. In addition to the Central Region, there are also East and West Regions.
The top eight teams from each region in the 54-hole regional tournament will advance to the NCAA National Championships on May 23-26 at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio.
In addition to the competitive field, the Cats will also need to overcome the difficult layout at the Traditions Club.
The course features narrow fairways and small postage-stamp greens. Many of the holes are tree-lined, taking driver out of play and forcing long-iron approach shots into greens. According to Kim, it’s one of the more challenging courses the team has played all season.
To the Cats’ advantage, they have already played the course before in previous years.
“I think just having played the course before will really help us a lot,” Kim said. “What it comes down to is who can make the smartest decisions off of tee boxes and into greens rather than being overly aggressive.”
After closing out the spring portion of their season with a decent showing at the Big Ten Championships, the Cats feel like they are heading into postseason competition with a good feeling.
“I would say we have quite a bit of momentum,” Kim said. “We’ve had a good season. We were pretty secure about getting our bid, so that gives us a little more confidence heading into the tournament.”
A pair of Cats received awards following the conclusion of regular-season play. Kim was named to the Second-Team All-Big Ten. In 10 events this season, Kim finished in the top 20 eight times.
She finished in the top 10 in four tournaments and was in contention to win three tournaments. While she fell short in the first two, Kim won medalist honors at the Big Ten Championships for her first collegiate victory.
Despite coming off of her first victory and being named to the second team, Kim doesn’t expect the honors to make much of a difference this week.
“I don’t really think that it will affect me too much other than just a little extra confidence,” she said.
Junior Heather Scholten was the other player to receive an award. As captain of the Cats, Scholten was NU’s recipient of the Big Ten sportsmanship award, which is given to one individual on each of the 11 Big Ten teams.
Despite the awards, Scholten felt that the team hasn’t lived up to its potential as much as it could have.
“I think that as players we all saw very good things in our games that never came together at the same time,” Scholten said. “We are hoping that they will come together in the future.”
Reach Michael Schlossberg at [email protected].
