Women's golf ends fall campaign with best season since 2014
The fall season for the Central Michigan women’s golf team has ended and the Chippewas had their best season since the program reopened in 2014.
CMU started off with a solid performance in mid-September where it finished 13th out of 19 teams at the Ball State Cardinal Classic with an overall score of 919. The Chippewas posted two 306 round scores, a program record at the time. Freshman Jami Laude led CMU with a score of 227, which was good for 39th individually out of 100 players.
The Chippewas' struggles continued at the Michigan State Mary Fossum Invitational on Sept. 24 as CMU finished last with a score of 967. Senior Natalie Johnson led the team with a 236 and finished in 28th place out of 59 players.
Seniors Johnson and Kristen Wolfe both posted scores of 235 at the Western Michigan Kzoo Classic on Oct. 3 to tie for 7th place out of 39 players. The Chippewas shot a 935 overall and had their best finish of the season by taking second place, ahead of the rival Broncos.
In-state foe Eastern Michigan wasn’t as kind to Central Michigan as the Chippewas finished in 9th place out of 10 teams at the Eastern Michigan Shirley Spork Invitational on Oct. 10. The Chippewas shot a 955 overall. Johnson again led the team with a 232 and placed 17th individually out of 58 players.
The last invitational of the fall season was at Dayton University. CMU shot a round-record score of 305 in the first round. Four of the five golfers for Central Michigan posted a score under 80. In the second round, however, the team struggled to maintain consistency and shot a 323 to finish in 8th place out of 12 teams.
The five players who have played at every invitational (senior Holly Hines, Johnson, Laude, Sophomore Danielle Sawyer and Wolfe) shot an average under 80 per round for the first time since 2014. Johnson leads the team with a 77.67 average.
To prepare for the spring season the team has added the trackman golf simulator, according to head coach Cheryl Stacy. The trackman measures facets of hitting a golf ball including ball speed, the carry, spin rate, and several others.
Stacy said the team's main goal for the spring season is to lower the averages of more players. Only Johnson and Laude were below 80 in the fall.
“Everyone has something they need to work on this winter," Stacy said. “If there was one thing everyone needed to work on, it would be to get their chips on the green consistently so that pars don’t turn to bogeys or bogeys turn to double bogeys.”
Stacy said the highlight of the team's fall season was its performance in Kalamazoo.
“It was nice for the seniors hard work to pay off and for them to be presented as well as have their picture framed,” Stacy said. The ladies will work to get more pictures framed this coming spring."
Central Michigan is back in action on Feb. 5 in the Mid-American Match Play Challenge in Lakewood Ranch, Florida.
