Coming back from a two-week break, the women’s golf team will be squaring off against some stiff competition in a couple of days at Jimmie Austin Golf Club in Norman, Texas. It is there that the Badger women golfers are scheduled to play in the Susie Maxwell Berning Classic on Sunday and Monday.
There shouldn’t be too many surprises, as more than half of the starting Badgers have some experience with this Oklahoma course.
Juniors Katie Elliot and Jeana Dahl and sophomore Kelsey Verbeten all golfed at the Susie Maxwell Berning Classic last year when the Badgers placed 12th out of 18 teams with a score of 910 (305-298-307).
The other two golfers who have yet to compete at the Jimmie Austin course are freshman Carly Werwie and junior Natasha Lopez-Moreira Barudi.
Werwie scored 168 (84-84) in Wisconsin’s last event at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invite in Texas and tied for 61stplace. Lopez, who is a junior transfer from the University of Richmond, also golfed in Texas and finished with a score of 163 (81-82) and a tie for 38th place.
The Badgers have started slowly and finished strong in recent tournaments, forcing themselves to have to dig out of deep holes. But the Badgers have also shown that they can pick up their play later on.
In Arizona, at the Rio Verde Collegiate Invitational, the Badgers opened with a 308 on the first day but finished better with a 305 and a 304 — ending up in a tie for eighth with a total score of 917.
At the Longhorn Invite in Texas, the Wisconsin women golfers were even more impressive.
Play had to be suspended because of the poor weather conditions, but the Badgers were the only team in the field that shot better on the second day than the first.
Wisconsin opened with a score of 329, putting them in a tie for 17th. On their second Texas round, however, the team brought their score down to 326 and finished 12thout of 19 teams, with a final score of 655.
The other teams had more difficulty scoring low as the tournament went on. Even New Mexico, the winner of the Longhorn Invite, played worse golf in the second round. New Mexico scored a 303 in the first round but shot 17 points higher in the second with a 320.
However, the team still managed to win the event and ended with a score of 623.
“I always like to see when you finish strong and you continue on,” head coach Todd Oehrlein said. “But at the same point in time we need to start faster than we have, without question.”
“I think we start slow because a lot of us don’t think we belong out there,” sophomore Kelsey Verbeten said. “After the first round or second round, we’re kind of out of it, and then we realize, ‘OK, we can put up a good number,’ but we’re so far behind that the last round isn’t enough to catch us up to where we need to be to be in contention.”
Verbeten has been playing well as of late.
She has led the team in scoring in the past two tournaments with 226 (78-72-76), tied for 14th in Arizona and 161 (81-80), tied for 29thin Texas.
“It’s been really great to see the progress and the stride that [Kelsey]’s made,” Oehrlein said. “[Kelsey]’s improved in just about every area of her game.
“[Kelsey]’s done an awesome job for us this spring, and hopefully she’s able to continue it.”
Only a sophomore, Verbeten has plenty of time to improve.
In Norman, Oklahoma, she will have an opportunity to score low and to lead the team in a third-straight event, something that will go a long way to build momentum for the upcoming Big Ten Championships starting in late April.
“I think with each tournament, you get a little more confident,” Verbeten said. “Once you start to put up some good numbers, it makes it easier to go back and do it the next round.”
“It’s just believing in yourself and realizing that you are as good as the other girls out there, and you can put up low numbers and play well.”
Verbeten, along with the rest of the Badgers, will be looking for low scores early on and throughout in Oklahoma as the end of the season draws near.
