Friday, April 25, 2008
After a spring season that contained many ups and downs, the Jayhawk women’s golf team is ready to play well in hopefully not their last tournament of the season, at the Big 12 tournament in Stillwater, Okla., at the Karsten Creek Golf Course.
Coach Erin O’Neil said the Par 72 golf course would be the most challenging course the Jayhawks played all year.
“We can’t get ahead of ourselves,” O’Neil said. “This is one of the best courses in the country.”
The Jayhawks are hoping their middle of the season swoon will be completely behind them entering this weekend.
“We dug ourselves into a hole,” senior Annie Giangrosso said regarding the team’s performance during the middle part of the season. “But there is that pressure to play well, but we are well aware of it.”
This is one of the youngest teams in years, but Giangrosso said she didn’t think that translated into lower talent. She, in fact, said she thought the opposite.
“I have never been a part of a team so young and talented,” she said. “It’s impressive. They are mature and skilled beyond their years.”
It’s that skill that will hopefully propel the Jayhawks into an impressive finish, with the NCAA tournament selection process shortly following the tournament. The process is similar to the men’s and women’s tournaments with three regions of 21 teams each, for 63 total.
A selection committee determines which teams are allowed to play on by comparing each team’s whole year including head to head matchups and stroke average. It’s “May Madness” in some sorts.
O’Neil said being ranked in the Top 50 could give a team a little breathing room, but with the Jayhawks currently outside of that cut, they would have to prove their worth on the golf course.
“We’ve treated every tourney the same,” O’Neil said. “So that we won’t have any added pressure.”
But with Big 12 teams such as Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas A&M, the course alone won’t be the only challenge.
“There are some top teams that come from the Big 12,” Giangrosso said. “But we just need to go out there and have fun.”
For those schools the top of the conference, it made it easier for recruiting, but Giangrosso said she loved what O’Neil did to bring in top young talent like freshman Grace Thiry and sophomore Emily Powers.
“There are a ton of unsigned international recruits, and that’s what coach does,” Giangrosso said. “If she can keep bringing in recruits internationally this program will be fine.”
Giangrosso hopes to make it to her first regional tournament, but understands the work she has put into the program and the enjoyment she has received from it.
“It would be great, but this has always been our main goal to start each season,” Giangrosso said. “Just work hard, but with the level of competition it’s getting tougher and tougher to make it to regionals.”
As for what the team needs to accomplish to be successful this weekend, besides being cool and composed as O’Neil stated, is to work on the short game.
“The key for any team on this course is how you putt, these are the fastest greens we’ve played on,” Giangrosso said.
A team that would know this especially would be Oklahoma State, who has a huge advantage as this course was built for them to play on, but along with Powers, Giangrosso understands what can happen when this team is firing on all cylinders.
“If everyone plays up to their abilities there is no reason we can’t be in the top three or four,” Giangrosso said. “We just need to put in three good rounds.”
—Edited by Samuel Lamb
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