KEVIN JENISON
GoSycamores.com
TERRE HAUTE, IND. ? The Indiana State women's golf team has had two weeks to fine tune their games and will play in the Payne Stewart Memorial on Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 18-19) in Springfield, Mo., at the Highland Spring Country Club. The 54-hole tournament will have two 18-hole rounds on Monday with a final 18-hole round on Tuesday. The event is hosted by Missouri State University.
“We have spent a lot of time working on the mental aspect of the game,” Greg Towne, Indiana State golf coach said. “The girls are working hard on their techniques and making significant progress. However, there have been times on the course when they would make mental mistakes. Each player could have posted better scores if they could have avoided these mental lapses.”
Towne said that the team is making progress towards their goal of winning the Missouri Valley Conference next spring.
“We will play several conference teams next week and that should give us a good indication of just where we are in relation to the other teams,” Towne said. “We will not change our goals and will keep ourselves focused on improving our games to achieve our goals next spring.”
The girls remain committed to the instruction that they are receiving from Towne and have been working hard on both their technique and mental preparedness for competition.
“We have had several talks about what they want to accomplish or even if they want to continue to play the game competitively,” Towne said. “Each one has expressed a great desire to keep working and are dedicated towards the goals that we have set.”
Indiana State will join several of the Missouri Valley Conference schools and a number of non-conference opponents in the field including Bradley, who won the Butler Fall Invitational in Indianapolis on Oct. 5. Along with Indiana State and Bradley will be Creighton, Drake, Missouri State, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois, Texas-El Paso, Central Arkansas, Arkansas-Little Rock, Oral Roberts, Drury, Indianapolis, South Dakota, South Dakota State, Missouri-Kansas City, and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Competition begins at 9 a.m. (ET) each day with a shotgun start.
Junior Reece Feducia leads the Sycamores with a 79.6 per round average (after seven rounds). Right behind her is freshman McCall Christopher (81.3), sophomore Emily Dixon (81.9), and sophomore Christina Beyerl (82.0). Senior Britney Martin has an 84.0 per round average while fellow senior Diana Price has an 86.1 per round average.
THE COURSE -
The best in the business, Robert Trent Jones II, succeeded in creating a golf course that exemplifies the Ozarks. Jones utilized the Dogwood, Elm, Maple, and Walnut trees found on the property to produce a course with rolling hills, local foliage, and streams that flow across the land. This setting became a course that measures 7,038 from the longest tees for a par 72 with a course rating of 74.9 and a slope rating of 144.
The fairways and tee boxes utilize sodded Zoysia leading to Bentgrass greens. If golfers veer too far off the hole they will be greeted with a rough mixture of fescue, bluegrass, rye grass, or one of over seventy sand and grass bunkers. Water hazards on seven holes can also prove to be an obstacle along the journey.
