Lady Pirates Golf competed in the NJCAA Region XVI event at Green Hills Golf Course in Chillicothe, MO on Tuesday. Two Lady Pirates, Carson Hall and Jessica Sheil, qualified for the 2019 NJCAA Women's Golf Championship to be held May 13-16 at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, FL. They will look to bring home the first individual national championship for women's golf in school history. In 2018, the Lady Pirates had their first national tournament qualifier, Hannah Bracken, who placed 109th in the 114-player field.
As the only women's golf program in NJCAA Region XVI, the three Lady Pirates golfers competed amongst themselves for region honors. Head Coach Daniel Cordray had these comments about the event. "The team showed up ready to play and I was pleased to see that we'd saved our best all-around round for the region event. I tell the team each year at the beginning of the season that the goal is to peak at the middle to end of April at Regionals. I felt that we had been doing a good job of working on our individual skills to help get us to that point. We identified for each of the ladies what we really needed to be working on to get results."
Carson Hall, a freshman from Moberly, MO, led the way shooting a score of 90 on the par 72 course. Jessica Sheil posted a score of 92 with Gretchen Tharp rounding out the scoring with a 95 (a personal low round). "Gretchen got off to a rough start on the first two holes but kept the front nine together with a 52 and followed it up with a 43 on the back nine. We have talked about her potential all season and things are just starting to "click"; that leaves us excited for next season. Carson played a steady round of golf with a 46-44. She avoided the major mistakes and kept a good mindset on the course to card her round of 90. Keeping a good mindset is something we have stressed for Carson on the course to help her keep rounds together and start scoring more consistently. Jessica got off to a great start on her front nine before finding a hazard on her 8th hole to cool the side off to a 46. She kept steady with a 46 again on the back nine while struggling with her putter. I look for Carson and Jessica to keep working on our little checklists we have for each up until the national tourney and we'll see what comes of it. Gretchen will finish out the semester working on her checklist while practicing as well," detailed Coach Cordray.
Cordray is excited about the opportunity for his two qualifiers to compete in the national tournament. "It will be a great experience for the ladies and a tough challenge of golf. We have played on some quality layouts over the season, so I believe we will be able to transition pretty well and not be in too much "awe". We will get down to Daytona Beach for our practice round and make a good course strategy for Carson and Jessica. Carson has steadily improved her scoring throughout the year. We get a little more consistency off the tee and Carson should handle her own game decent. Jessica came into the fall striking the ball very well, then went through a little downtime, but has picked up the ball striking here in the last week. If we can get Jessica's putter warmed up a bit by the national tourney, I look for her to have a good tourney."