Lady Pirates Golf competed in the Bent Tree Intercollegiate Showcase on Friday, April 13th. Hannah Bracken placed 12th in the 26 player event shooting +18. Julia Weydert shot +25 which was good for 17th place. Shayla Woodside's +52 score left her in 26th.
"Bent Tree was a links style course that was set into large rolling hills with native grass areas. It was a fair but challenging test for the ladies. During the practice round and preparation for the tournament, we had to convince ourselves that we had the ability to score well on the course. Yes, it may have looked visually intimidating, but to break down each shot on each hole and that we could use our course management we've been learning on navigating through the course. The tournament had plenty of wind to battle, but we've seen poor weather basically all spring. Iowa Western CC was the host and they are a force year in year out in women's juco golf. They had the individual national champion last year. That being said, even though it wasn't a large field, there was plenty of talent. The ladies once again improved and cut strokes, with each turning in their low scorecard for both the fall and spring season. Hannah just missed a top ten, Julia was right in the middle of the field, and Shayla keeps showing that she is a competitor and her practice is paying off with her improving scores. We sat down after the fall season and then again at the beginning of the spring, discussing that scores truly didn't matter until our region event. Our goal was for the ladies to improve each week and keep working on our individual things that we needed to and to see where they put us come the region event. As a coach, I'm pleased with our efforts and keeping our heads up and focusing on the end goal of performing our best at the end of the season. We will work this week on things that each of the ladies need to focus on. At regions, we just need to keep focused on each shot at a time and moving forward to tackling the next. No matter what happens at regions, we have achieved our goal of improving throughout the season. We look forward to that first tee shot at Excelsior Springs and each to follow after that and seeing where it puts us at the end of the day," remarked Coach Cordray of the event.
The event was scheduled to be a 2-day event but was shortened due to weather. This tournament was the last regular season event on the Lady Pirates schedule before next competing in the NJCAA Region 16 Championship on Saturday, April 21st in Excelsior Springs, MO.