September 24-26, 2006
 
Rocky Mountain College 

This weeks tournament was expected to be a duel between us and Rocky. The scores would be low and no team wanted to come out on the bottom. Surprisingly the fall season has brought good weather and Billings was no different. Randy, the Rocky coach, made sure the greens were in great shape as well as the rest of the golf course. The first round of the tournament went similar to the rest; we were in the lead by just a few strokes. The second round too was similar to the previous tournaments. We lost the lead and were tied with Rocky at the end of day one.  Personally I played very well but still felt like I had given strokes up on easy tasks: short missed birdie opportunities, missed greens from within 100 yards, and, worst of all, poor chips. As the day progressed I started to feel weak and sick. The second day I was unable to play because I was feeling so physically fatigued and sick. I really didn’t want to let down the team but couldn’t possibly play in the state I was in. Usually there are five top girls and four of the top five scores are taken to come up with a team score. However because I was unable to play the other top four girls had the pressure that their score would have to count, no longer could they rely on another teammate. Day two was difficult for all the girls. The added pressure of being tied at Rocky’s home course and only having four girls was mentally draining. In the end we ended up losing to Rocky. However, the conference title isn’t won in the fall. We still have our home meet at Lewiston, which we are known to dominate, and the Westminster tournament. In two weeks we head to play against division II teams in Bellingham, WA.  By then I will be well rested, healthy, and well practiced. I know we can be a competitive threat to those higher caliber teams.

Talk to ya’all soon, 

Samara Kluever

The tournament played this past weekend, hosted by Rocky Mountain College was played out of Peter Yagen golf course in billings, Montana. An interesting course lay out with a lot of space to miss, if you were missing the fairways. The course was in great shape and very well manicured with the greens in superb condition. They rolled smooth and true and were quick to the touch. The rough, however, was thick, juicy, and tough to play out of and did cause some anguish. Pin position played a key factor in determining what teams were going to shoot. Let’s just say there were some high numbers. The weather once again was awesome, a little chilly at times but sunny and warm at midday. The wind rolled in every afternoon and was to be expected; apparently a day does not go by with out a blast from the skies, as one fellow golfer put it.

The golf played was of high quality and there were many great shots witnessed through out the two days of play.

The LCSC men’s team came to the tournament with great expectations (as we always do, I might add). A case of third time luck and we weren’t far off, although we should have had this one in the bag. In the first round LCSC stormed ahead of the field beating all our rivals by a great number of shots. However, our nemesis second round cost us and the competition reeled us back in. the third round was more of a tussle between LCSC, Montana tech and Rocky Mountain. Rocky Mountain had a clear advantage course wise, and thus beat us, but not convincingly. Montana Tech fell apart and we gained seventeen shots on them. Add up all the three weeks play and LCSC men’s team is in great shape to leap ahead of our rivals. At present it’s close to a three way tie with LCSC gaining a clear advantage in the spring, hopefully to take victory of the conference but I don’t want to give away too much too soon. It was a very good week and we look forward to Canada in two weeks to see what we can produce.

May the force be with us! 

Nik Arrenbracht