4 More Days and We Head South!

I really can't believe how quickly these past two months have flown by! We've been doing all we can to prepare for our first tournament of the Spring. The struggle with the weather has been difficult to deal with, but with our indoor facility, we've had the advantage of being able to practice no matter what is going on outside! This time of year presents other struggles as well...dealing with swing fundamentals, swing changes, and just being out of sink with swing and tempo are common early in the year, but I see them all overcoming those one day at a time.

The big thing we will have to deal with going into our first tournament is trust. Will we trust our swings? Will we be able to commit to the target or the shot at hand? Will we have enough trust to have confidence in that shot? Those will be big questions. I have no doubt in my mind that the team will be able to hit the great shots that they need, but the mental part of it is so tough this time of year. My job will be to ensure we go into the tournament as prepared as possible and relaxed. Of course we have a goal for ourselves, but we our expectations can't be extremely high or we will play too tight. This is the perfect opportunity to look at this tournament as a great way to start our quest for a MAC Championship at the end of April. We will have a great chance to play OUTSIDE on excellent golf courses.

No matter what our finish will be...I'm grateful we have this opportunity to travel the country to play golf and have the chance to get our games more in tune for the next tournament. Student-athletes have a great life, but I think golfers have it the best :)!!

Guest Blogger---Sophomore Katie Jenior

This week has been going pretty well so far. I started off the week with a team Super Bowl party at Tyler and Amanda’s apartment. It was a lot of fun! We all got together to watch the game with the team and the boyfriends, Amanda made great food including pigs-in-a-blanket, pizza, cheese and crackers, and chicken wings, and we just all hung out and had a great time. And since the Super bowl was at an earlier time this year, we still all made it home in time to get enough sleep for workouts the next morning.

As the week went on, most of us attended our classes even through the cold weather and heavy snow. Some people were sick though so they were unable to attend a couple classes. Now, everyone is healthy and ready to go! =)

Now we have come to the middle of the week which is my favorite day… Wednesday! Every Wednesday night, I love to go line dancing at the Dusty Armadillo. Line dancing is a huge hobby of mine and has been for a couple years now. It’s one of my fun nights where I can get away from school work and everything and just have fun with my friends.

As far as the golfing goes, we have been inching into harder practices trying to nail everything down. Our first tournament is next weekend so we have been working really hard and trying to get our games back to top notch. The team is looking great and everyone has been very dedicated. However, the thing we have been working on the most has been chipping. We have been working on bump-and-run drills and bucket drills every day. We also made a game out of it. Whoever gets 3 balls into the bucket first is the winner. I, Katie Jenior, have defeated Amanda Butler! This is just a fun way to keep practicing interesting and keeps the competition flowing. We will be finishing up our Short Game Boot Camp this week as well as hitting outside tomorrow (Friday). We will be traveling to Hackers, which is Firestone’s public driving range. We cannot really hit on the course yet seeing how the weather has not been treating us very well. But that doesn’t stop us!

Wish us luck and cheer for us in our first tournament!

Go Zips! Katie Jenior

Guest Blogger--Women's Golfer Amanda Butler

This week has gone by so fast…Overall it has been a great week! It started off pretty hectic because I was sick last week so I had to get caught up. My classes this semester are really enjoyable; I’m pretty much done with all my general ed. classes so I'm starting to get to take classes that are related to my major.

I am really looking forward to the start of season. I think the whole team is ready to get back in the flow of things and travel to all the amazing places. We only have 15 days till we leave for our first tournament!!! Our team is so fortunate to have an indoor facility we can practice at during the winter months. Today some of my teammates and I had a contest going and I would like to announce that ”I BEAT KATIE” haha!! We were hitting shots at a bucket that was about 25 yards away but the catch was that the bucket was 12 inches in diameter so it made it challenging. An hour later I finally made the shot and we all moved on to different drills, knowing that tomorrow the same competition would begin.

This week I feel that as a team, we have grown closer together. I know that through thick and thin my teammates will always have my back as I will always have theirs. Team unity is a main component of success. We always laugh and have fun with each other which makes time on and off the course worthwhile. I have establish a team circle, which means that we trust, support and motivate each other no matter what the situation may be. Since the first day I met my team and my coach, we have all become very close friends and we are becoming more comfortable with each other every day.

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”-Andrew Carnegie

GO ZIPS!!Amanda Butler

Golf Tip Tuesday--Happy "Groundhog Day"!!

Happy Groundhog Day to all! I believe our little groundhog is predicting 6 more weeks of winter, but maybe he'll be wrong this time!

This day always reminds me of the movie "Groundhog Day" starring Bill Murray. Bill Murray's character as a tv weatherman, hated his latest assignment to cover the Groundhog Day events in Punxsutawney and because of this he found himself repeating the same day over and over again! I love this movie, but it also makes me think of golf (just like everything almost!).

Repeating a day over and over again might not be ideal. Some days just need to be done, but sometimes we would all love that second chance! Repetition in certain aspects of the game are very important. For example...you would really want a preshot routine that repeats itself before you hit every single shot on the golf course. Repetition with your preshot routine is a must. It gets you in the zone before hitting your shot. It can relax you and ease your mind when you are familiar with your routine.

I highly recommend paying attention to the pros on tv before they hit a shot. Learn something from their preshot routine. Also, a book that is perfect for this would be "Every Shot Must Have a Purpose" by Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott. It suggest many useful techniques for the preshot routine and also your thought process before each shot.

So, remember to fine tune your preshot routine and make it the exact same every time. A comfortable, repetitive preshot routine will help you eliminate repetitively bad scores!