After producing encouraging results in its last two tournaments, the Wisconsin women's golf team is ready to swing into action this weekend at the Big Ten Championships. Recently, UW competed in the Lady Buckeye Invitational, claiming 12th overall. The Badgers defeated Big Ten foes Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio State at the tournament.
Indeed, UW women's head coach Todd Oehrlein was satisfied with last weekend's performance; however, he was extremely pleased with senior Lindsay McMillan's hole-in-one on the eighth hole in the second round.
"[McMillan] was unbelievably excited. Well, so was I," Oehrlein said during Monday's press conference. "We all were. I mean it was great. … She was funny when she saw it go in the hole. The crowd that was up by the hole … reacted, obviously, and she dropped the club down and put her hands over her face and was just in shock."
With the additional momentum from the hole-in-one, the Badgers are almost in prime position for this weekend's championship. On the other hand, the team still can improve on additional areas on the green.
"We need to work on our puts," Oehrlein said. "Ball strength, we've been pretty decent, but we aren't making enough putts.
"We've been playing a stretch of really good holes, and then we've had a mental breakdown, poor execution or a loss of concentration, and we are making mistakes that have been really costly," Oehrlein added. "We are losing most of our shots in a few holes, and we have to eliminate those mistakes."
With 36 holes awaiting the Badgers this weekend, stiff competition should be provided by each of the Big Ten schools. According to Golfweek's ratings, three of Wisconsin's conference competitors rank in the top 30 nationally. No. 96 UW falls ninth among Big Ten programs.
Highlighting the competition is No. 7 Purdue, who is favored to win this year's championships. Oehrlein is aware of Purdue's potential and is planning on focusing the team's attention to other conference squads.
"The programs that we are really competing with are Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota," he explained. "That's the way it goes. There are three or four schools in our conference that are usually annually and predominately very dominant and very strong. … Then there is the rest of the pack. Everyone is very competitive and usually only a few shots behind that first pack."
Last season, Wisconsin finished eighth at the tournament. This season, things have been different, as UW has been led by a very strong, youthful class in Jeana Dahl and Isabel Alvarez.
"They have made a huge impact," Oehrlein said. "Jeana has been our top finisher in half of our performances, and Isabel has given us some solid rounds … and has given us a nice lift, and we are going to need great scores out of them this weekend.
"They are two players that have added talent and depth and some good scores," Oehrlein added.
Along with the freshmen, Oehrlein will turn to the senior golfers for leadership throughout the weekend event.
"We've [had] some nice contribution, especially as of late, from a couple of seniors, Lindsay McMillan and Jackie Obermueller," says Oehrlein, "[They] have played very well and need to continue to do so here heading into this weekend."
