KEVIN JENISON

GoSycamores.com

TERRE HAUTE, Ind.  – The Indiana State women's golf team swings back into action this weekend as they compete in the Ann Rhoads Spring Invitational hosted by Birmingham-Southern College. The competition will be held Sunday and Monday at the Oxmoor Valley Golf Course, part of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, with 18 holes played each day.

This is the sixth time that the Sycamores have competed in the event with their best finish coming in 2010 when they won the team title. Indiana State tied for third a year ago.

“The main goal this week is to get some time with our short game and become used to hitting targets again,” Greg Towne, Indiana State women's golf coach, said. “Playing good golf is always about how you embrace the occasional failure and it is especially important in the early tournaments when you are rusty from the winter.”

Southern teams have an advantage over northern teams in regards to their ability to play on courses during the winter recess between the fall and spring seasons. Towne says that to counter this, the team will need to be discriminating about when they choose to challenge themselves.

“In high risk situations it is going to be better to stay within our capabilities and wait for the lower risk shots to push the envelope,” Towne said. “Our winter training has been fantastic and it is up to the women to trust in that and take it with them to the course.”

The Sycamores will be led by seniors Christina Beyerl, Emily Dixon, and Reece Feducia with junior McCall Christopher and sophomore Gina Della Camera also in the competition. Others who may see action in the first tournament of the spring season are sophomores Erinn Sutton and Andrea Frankiewicz.

Joining the Sycamores in the competition will be host Birmingham Southern College and Methodist University, Jackson State University, Catawba College, Harding University, the University of New Orleans, Spelman College, University of Montevallo, and Spring Hill College.

The Weather – Saturday's practice round will see partly cloudy skies with a high of 43 degrees after an overnight low of 29 which may delay the start of the round due to frost concerns. Sunday's first round will be sunny with a high of 53 degrees after an overnight low of 35 with mostly cloudy skies during Monday's final round with a high of 59 after an overnight low of 50.

THE GOLF COURSE –

Oxmoor Valley is a 54-hole facility in Birmingham built on former mining land owned by U.S. Steel. Sculpted from the peaks and valleys of the Appalachians, the courses offer scenic forests, numerous creeks and challenging elevation changes. The Short Course is listed by Golf Digest's Places to Play as one of the nation's Great Value courses in the public category. There is also two 18-hole championship courses, The Ridge and The Valley.

The Ridge course, with its roller coaster fairways, heavy tree cover and precipitous 150-foot elevation changes, is incredibly photogenic. As a reminder of the site's former use, the green at the par-five 3rd is buttressed by a shelf of exposed shale rock.

The Valley course is dotted with picturesque lakes, beautiful rolling fairways and stretches two miles downrange along a slender valley. The par-3 second hole plays over a pond to a green guarded by bunkers in front.

The Short Course at Oxmoor Valley is a delightful collection of 18 pure one-shotters which offer severe elevation changes and almost every hole plays downhill.