KSU's Women's Golfer Molly Winnett Blog: Day One

Today was a historical day for the Lady Owls.  For the first time in program history we competed in our very first NCAA post-season tournament at the West Regional tournament.  We had an afternoon tee time, so we got to relax earlier this morning which was something new for us. Playing at my first Regional championship definitely gave me butterflies right before I teed off.  Thankfully, I hit my first tee shot in the middle of the fairway, so the butterflies went away soon after.  Although we as a team didn’t finish the way we had hoped, I know that we had a great time playing at this beautiful course in Erie, Colorado. 

This is the first time I have played in Colorado, and believe me there is nothing like hitting a tee shot and seeing nothing but mountains as the ball flies down to the middle of the fairway. The course today couldn’t be in better shape. The greens were rolling true and the fairways were nice and wide open. Colorado is known for its altitude difference and that difference gave us at least 20 more yards of distance. The course on paper sounds long at just over 6,500 yards but with this extra distance, it plays a lot shorter.

Freshman Kaew shot a great round of +1 and I shot a +6 (78).  Ines, Lea, and Ket all shot 79s and the KSU Lady Owls are currently sitting in 20^th place.  We got to play with the University of Illinois and San Jose State today.  I have played with some Illinois players before and they are known for their length and that was true today. San Jose State was a new team that we encountered and they brought the heat as well. We have been in the bottom before, but we know that we still have 36 more holes to play. These next two days will be tough with rain coming in, but we all know that we have to step all of our games up and make up ground.