September 23-24, 2007

Our final endeavor to take the lime light from Rocky Mountain in Billings, Montana was short lived. Being our final tournament for the Fall semester, the urgency was imminent, as we needed to catch the leaders. However the problem lay in the fact that LCSC golf teams, both men and women had to play our main rivals on their home course which we knew up front, was going to be tough, because of their performance thus far.

I guess my last sentence hinted to what was going to ultimately happen and yes unfortunately we came in second once again which is not terrible but one could feel the mood on the bus trip home…..one of disappointment. Fortunately the score difference between LCSC and Rocky Mountain is not as vast as last year and last year we ended up as conference champs. So we as a team look forward to great prospects and hopefully the second half of the season (spring semester) will reveal our true potential as we continue our endeavor on home turf.

Congratulations to Joey Lovell on his second place finish.       

Nik 

This week we played the toughest tournament of the season, not because the course is hard but because we are playing on Rocky Mountain’s home course, Peter Yegan. Actually Peter Yegan is probably the easiest of the courses we play in our conference tournaments because it is very open and plays short for both the men’s and women’s teams. Obviously we all go into every tournament believing we can have a victory but the track record for my previous three years makes me believe we need to all play spectacular to win at Yegan. Worst of all the trip to Billings is about a eleven hour bus ride and then we don’t have time for a practice round rather we are just able to hit balls and putt a little bit.

When we all arrived in Billings we were all somewhat lagging because of the bus ride. We took the newbies out around the course and practiced for a little more than in hour. Then it happened, it started to rain, not a good sign. The rain was light but the forecast for Sunday didn’t seem very inviting for a thirty-six hole round. We all hoped for good weather and when we woke up the sun wasn’t shinning but it also wasn’t raining yet.

We made it to the golf course went through our morning routine and then headed out to our assigned holes. For me the round started off rough, first a missed green turned into a bogey then another missed green turned into a double. I knew that bogies weren’t going to cut it so I got my head into the round and started to hit greens. After six holes I was three over and made my way to the turn. My new mind set for the turn was I was even par at that point and I actually stayed level till an easy par five when I hit my second shot into some really thick rough. One over wasn’t bad and I believed a birdie putt would have to drop before I finished the side. To my dismay though none of my putts dropped and I stayed one over for the side. My last two hole #10 and #11 were treacherous, I barley escaped with a par on ten and then barley escaped with a bogey on eleven. I was content with my round but knew I needed to better it if we were to bet Rocky at Yegan. Well I will just go ahead and say that I didn’t play any better but much worse and that at the end of the day we were again behind Rocky by way to many strokes to be happy with our play. Individually we all had a good round here or there but our problem is the inconsistency of our scores. It’s just to bad when you know that your capable of good even great rounds but you play a game of golf that isn’t you.

We were behind and it was almost like we couldn’t make up the ground on the second day. Courtney and Juanita both played good rounds on Monday but it wasn’t enough to impact the initial scores. We all left Billings disappointed and all have areas of our game that need some fixing before the spring season starts. The boy’s team is now finished for the fall and will play their next tournament in February in Phoenix. We have a week to practice and then are off to Bellingham to play in a Division II tournament. We have a lot to prove to these teams because last year we didn’t far as well as we had expected. As a team we all want to play well and it’s going to take some work in this off week to play the game we are capable of playing. 

Just an FYI, Nic and I will be on Inside LCSC with our coaches this Thursday, so tune in. 

Till Bellingham Goodbye      

Samara Kluever