This week, Oregon women’s golf coach Ria Scott had the team perform short game drills through the rain and cold weather. Scott and the other coaches also put the team into more competitive modes and simulated real game situations in practice.
Cassy Isagawa, a fourth year senior with the team, struggled to complete the short game drills, but believes that it will help her in the long run. Isagawa knows that not every swing will go in the team’s favor, but the drills will help her get prepared for when the tournament gets difficult. Last year at the Silverado Showdown, Isawaga placed sixth overall. This year, she’s looking to improve.
“Coming into Silverado, I am striking it much better compared to last year, so that gives me more confidence,” Isagawa said. In preparation for this tournament, Isawaga has been working specifically on her stroke and putting game.
Isagawa finds that the most difficult hole to play in this tournament is the third. The third hole flows from right to left with everything sloping to the right. The whole course contains elements that will help the Ducks prepare for the Pac-12 Championship tournament in Boulder, Colorado. The Ducks are heading into this tournament with an advantage: This course resembles the courses in Oregon.
The course has big tree line fairways guiding the course to the hole. From the tee off to hole, there is escalation toward the green, which will make getting the ball in the hole more difficult. The course contains a good mix of long holes and short holes.
Cathleen Santoso, a second year golfer with the team, is approaching the Silverado Showdown with a different mindset than the one she had during the Anuenue Spring Break Classic in Kapalua, Hawaii.
Santoso struggled to close out the tournament at the Anuenue Spring Break Classic. Santoso is fixing her mindset from, “Hey, I got three more holes then I’m done,” to having the quality of her last three holes be the same as her first three holes. Santoso ended up tying for ninth place out of the top-20.
According to golfstat.com, the Ducks are going into this tournament ranked No. 32.
Santoso is looking forward to facing Northwestern the most.
“We haven’t played with them for a long time, and they are the highest ranked team there with us, it will be good to play with them,” Santoso said.
Follow Keoni Conlu on Twitter @kconlu13