The No. 44 Oregon women’s golf team tees off in the NCAA West Regional at 12:30 p.m. today. At Lincoln Hills Golf Course near Sacramento, Calif., the team will play in its fifth trip to the NCAA Regionals in eight years under coach Shannon Rouillard.
But this group of golfers is untested at the regional level because the women’s team has missed the field for the last two years. Rouillard said the most important thing for her young golfers to remember is to play the same way they have all season and not to change their preparation or approach.
“Just because it’s regionals doesn’t mean we need to play any different,” she said. “If we go out there and just play solid and focus on ourselves…I think we’ll have a good chance of making it.”
Unlike the NCAA Regionals in other sports, in golf it is a more business-like affair, which may aid Oregon’s inexperienced team in focusing closely on the task at hand.
“It’s kind of a no-frills event,” Rouillard said. “Every team that’s there is grinding away trying to make the top eight because the majority of the field is going to go home, and this will be their last event.”
The team might be inexperienced, but freshman Kendra Little said it would be disappointed to not advance.
“It’s nice to make regionals, but we’ve come this far and we’re not going to be satisfied just making regionals,” Little said. “We want to make nationals and anything less than that is going to leave a sour taste in our mouths.”
If the team’s last trip to Lincoln Hills is any indication, it could score well. Junior Cathryn Bristow followed up a 2-under-par second round with an even-par final round to finish in second place individually for the tournament, and the team’s final round 308 pushed it to a runner-up finish in the team standings. Rouillard characterized the course as “middle of the road” in terms of difficulty, but it can be made far more difficult with certain troublesome pin locations.
“When we were there a month ago in the final round there were some pretty tricky hole locations,” she said. “You just need to manage the course well and make sure we hit the ball in the right spot on some of those more challenging hole locations.”
The team will play a morning round Friday following its afternoon round Thursday, but the 18-holes per day format will easily negate any fatigue for the Ducks according to Rouillard, as the team is accustomed to a 36-hole day followed by a final 18-hole round in most tournaments.
“We’ve played a number of 36,18-hole rounds (this spring),” she said. “They’re used to the rigors of having to turn around from a late round and play early the next day.”
And though late afternoon green conditions can often vary dramatically from morning conditions, Rouillard said she doesn’t anticipate a problem there either.
“It’s going to depend a little bit on the weather…If there’s wind in the afternoon it could definitely speed the greens up,” she said. “But they will mow the greens and possibly roll them for each day of competition, so we’re expecting those factors to stay relatively constant.”
“It’s going to be a great, great experience for all of us,” Little said of the event. “Hopefully we’ll be able to capitalize on it.”
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