September 9-10, 2007

Well Hello to all, 

I, Samara Kluever, will again be writing the golf journals for the LC Women’s Golf Team for the year. Let’s just start off with introducing my teammates for the year. I am the only senior able to play this semester. Our other two Katie Fuqua and Chantelle Bevridge are both red-shirting. Katie is a serious biology major that wants to improve her game, so she will play as a senior next year and Chantelle is a medical red-shirt from an injury that occurred at the national tournament last spring in San Diego. Then we have our juniors Niki Fisher and Juanita Villa. Juanita is just off a great season where she became an All-American, she really is that great. For the sophomore class we have three girls, Courtney Shrout, Sue James, and Brittney Wheeler. Sadly Brittney is also a medical red-shirt due to a back injury. Lastly we have the pleasure of two new freshmen, Alana Norris and Jordan Knapp. In all I believe that all theses girls have the chance to help our team succeed this upcoming season.

Every year we start out conference play in Butte, Montana. Just like last year we will be playing at the Fairmont Hot Springs just to the west of Butte. Luckily we are able to play this tournament on a Sunday-Monday schedule instead of the Monday-Tuesday schedule we are used too. It is nice this year because we won’t be missing as much school in the fall semester as I am used to missing. Actually it’s going to be strange not to just have two days of class a week in the fall but I am sure I can manage a three day class week. So as I was saying before we are playing at Fairmont and all of us are very excited to see where we stand and where we need improvements for the upcoming season.

We left for Butte early Saturday morning so we could play a practice round in the afternoon. The weather was mild with a little wind just I only thought that this weather would help us for the upcoming days. For me the course was just as I remembered it, with back to front sloping greens not in the greatest shape. There are a few holes where placement is crucial but the majority of the holes are straight forward other than those greens. On Saturday evening we went to dinner and finally were given our top five players for the tournament. The order would be Juanita, myself, Cort, Alana, and Niki. Sue and Jordan would be playing in the individual spots.

We woke up Sunday morning freezing, lets just say Butte, Montana is slightly colder than Lewiston at this time of year. There would be about an hour frost delay due to the weather but that play would start as soon as possible. Because this is my journal entry you will have to hear about my day and then I will try to fill you in with the play of the other girls on the team.

I started on hole number ten, just in front of Juanita’s group. The air was cold but every girl was playing in the same weather on the same course so I had nothing to complain about. My day started off rough. After a bogey followed by a double I was a little skeptical about the rest of the day. However I pick up my play and ended my first nine with a forty-two, not great but not horrible. I looked at the next nine in a new light, which in the end wasn’t a great idea. I really struggled on the par fives which is very odd seeing as I am a longer hitter than most but I couldn’t work my fairway woods. In the end I was four over just on par fives for my second nine which resulted in a horrible score of 44 adding up to an 86. After looking at my stats I was amazed at my 86 because I hit the majority of my fairways and hit the majority of my greens in regulation. In the end this poor score was due to high scores on par fives and a not so great display of putting, usually my strangest point. After the first round as a team LC was 27 strokes behind Rocky Mountain College.

The second round started off similar to the first again a bogey on hole 10, a par five. Then I hit a good drive that ended up just left of the fairway about 60 yards off the green. I thought what an easy shot up to the green but to my horror I shanked the ball directly right across the fairway on to some uninviting hard-pan. Upset about the shank I pitched the ball up and stood over a putt just upset. Throughout the day I hadn’t made a putt outside of six feet so my confidence wasn’t great for this fifteen footer I stood over. Well I made my par putt and then proceeded to make a birdie putt form twenty feet on the next hole, it finally seemed like I had cracked this greens. After my first nine I was just one over going into my tenth hole and felt great about my game. I bogeyed the tenth again, pared then next, then bogeyed again. To make it short I ended up five over for a 77. Our freshman Alan really stepped it up and bettered me by two strokes tallying a 75. In the end we gained only one stoke on Rocky but were happy we knew we can beat them.

On Monday we played our last and final round for the tournament. Again there was a slight delay in play due to frost but as we started to play you could just tell there was going to be some great weather. For me the only good aspect of the day turned out to be the weather. I started off rocky on my first nine and fought for a 43 which I was very disappointed in. Then I tried to change my groove for the next nine, obviously I ended up picking the wrong groove as you will read. Hole one had given me troubles all week and again my putting left me not even an inch short from a par. The second hole went as planned, fairway, green, close putt, tap-in. Then onto hole three an uphill three tiered green. I felt as though all week I was coming up just short with most of my clubs so I choose a 6 for a 150 yard up hill shot, I thought it could almost be short but to my surprise I barley pulled my shoot which ended up on the second tier one to high. A four putt later left me with a double. Things though started to look up for the next few holes and I thought I may be able to come back, however, I was greatly mistaken an on the 6^th my game just plummeted in a downward spiral quick. I don’t want to burden you with a story of horrendous holes so instead I will tell you, this upcoming week if you would like to chat I will be at Gateway hitting 100 yards and in shoots. In the end we as a team really faltered, I feel I faltered the most. Well I can’t waste anymore time writing when I have some practicing to do.

Till Next Week,

Cheers,

Samara Kluever

The fall semester season opening event took place in Butte, Montana over the weekend of the 9^th and 10^th of September. Its always a tough event for both the LCSC Men’s and ladies team as we never quite know what to expect from the other teams, however we are always in high spirits and expect to do exceptionally well. This year was no different with a squad of eight highly talented players all eager to get out on to the course and represent the college.

 The men’s team which consists of two new freshman arrivals from Europe, three sophomores, two juniors and a senior had a rather scattered week of qualifying just before the event. This was not to deter us and upon leaving Saturday morning, our past weeks endeavors had been totally forgotten. The bus trip up was filled with tired souls-probably from lengthy social interactions from the night before-however as the morning progressed, the mood grew from tired eyes and sore heads in to one of anticipation and eagerness.

Our expectation about the course were grand, as the lay out is known to be very open with only young trees dotted in odd locations. This was to be the “big hitters paradise” and it was however many were not prepared for what was in store for us on the greens. The greens!! A topic of hot debate once rounds one and two had been completed- lets just say dinner that night had only one clear cut topic of discussion. If I had to some it up the greens, they were tricky and hard to judge, speed was key to shooting good scores. The other big issue was that the greens had server knap (the ability for the grass to grab or move the ball suddenly in another direction) and this caused great anguish with in the team. Our ability to determine ‘the knap’ in the green caused a server lack of confidence in the putting which ultimately cost us at the end of the tournament.

The weather was cold and after practicing the past two weeks in Lewiston, Idaho in 90+ F temperatures, I think every one forgot their ear muffs and gloves thinking that the weather in Montana would not be far different. It was however sunny with crisp air chilling our cheeks. It did warm up in the afternoons which was great. overall very refreshing to be out and about in the country side surrounded by pine covered hills and cows blurting at each other in the most random fashion.

At the tournaments end we were finally beaten by Rocky Mountain and Westminster College. Rocky Mountain played superb golf and did deserve to win but Westminster came as a bit of a surprise falling into second place. The season has only just begun and the men’s team is super anxious to win another regional title and push for a place in the final national tournament at the end of the year. This is going to be another fun year ahead with great golf still to materialize.

Nik