[media-credit name=’UW Athletic Communications’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]This Saturday marks the beginning of what is shaping up to be yet another successful season of women’s golf for UW-Madison.

Todd Oehrlein returns for his second year as head coach of the women’s golf team. Before coming to Madison, Oehrlein was head golf coach at UW-Eau Claire for six years. Alongside Oehrlein is Lori Murphy, now in her 12th year as assistant coach.

“It’s been a really good summer as a team,” Oehrlein said. “I was very pleased with the way Nikki [Morse] played this past weekend … but she’s not alone. We’re a very young team, so we’re really trying to be more consistent in our games. We can’t afford to have rounds that take us out of tournaments.”

The team kicks off its fall season this Saturday, Sept. 11, with the Lady Northern Invitational in Ann Arbor, Mich. The following weekend the women travel to East Lansing, Mich. for the Mary Fossom Invitational. They will finish out the fall season with the Legends Shootout in Franklin, Ind. and the Lady Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. on Oct. 4 and 17-19, respectively.

Oehrlein is looking forward to the upcoming fall schedule, as it holds a lot of challenges for the team as a whole.

“It starts out extremely competitive with the Lady Northern, which should be a Big Ten Preview. Later in the fall we travel to Arkansas, and I’ve heard the course there is just outstanding,” said Oehrlein.

Last season saw the Badgers tie for fifth place at the Big Ten championships. Malinda Johnson was a driving force behind last year’s success. While Johnson won’t be returning this season, as she’s earned her 2005 LPGA Tour exemption card, Lindsay McMillan will be looking to step up her game coming off of a season of solid performances. McMillan ranked second on the team last season and will aim to develop more this year. She was recently honored by being named to the National Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar Team for her second year in a row.

While Malinda Johnson won’t be playing for the Badgers this season, Oehrlein reported that she’ll be helping out as an assistant coach.

“Malinda still has one semester left of school … but her future is pretty set. She knows where she’s at and she’s very excited about that.”

One of the team’s main concerns for this season is its somewhat limited short game.

Oehrlein said that the team had a few nice putts this past season, “but we need to see more of that. Games are often won in the short game and any problems we may have will only hurt us in tournament play.”

Following the short fall season is a brief hiatus for the women’s golf team. Action picks right back up after winter break, when the spring season begins. It runs from early February until late April. Though the season is weighted heavier in spring, Oehrlein says that the team will be playing “a very competitive schedule this fall.”