After hosting the Lady Northern a week ago, Wisconsin women’s golf team heads down to The Club at Old Hawthorne in Missouri today for the Johnie Imes Invitational. The Invitational plays host to 18 universities, including 10 top-100 teams, four of which are ranked inside the top 50.
The Badgers, currently ranked No. 49, will send seniors Kelsey Verbeten and Molly Schemm, junior Carly Werwie, sophomore Jessie Gerry and freshman Alyssa Elliot to participate in the tournament.
Werwie has stood out the most on the team so far this season, placing seventh in the Badgers’ last tournament. She has proven herself to be a huge asset for UW. Head coach Todd Oehrlein lauded the junior’s skills and has high praise for her role on the team.
“Carly’s been one of our best players for a number of years right now, and I would expect the same this year,” he said. “I think Carly will be there throughout the whole season and we’re going to count on her a number of times throughout the year to put up some good numbers for us. I think she understands that, I think she expects that, I think she accepts that challenge and looks forward to it.”
Werwie won the Wisconsin Women’s Golf Association’s Golfer of the Year award in 2008. And though she did not go into tournaments looking to win the award, she understands it is a great honor.
“It’s just nice to be rewarded for the hard work going into the year, going to practices and going to tournaments,” Werwie said. “I try not to think about it too much because it’s a nice accomplishment, but was never in my mind to try and win the award.
“It was definitely a lot of fun to receive it, though,” she added.
Alongside Werwie is Verbeten, who was the most consistent scorer last year, but has yet to find her form this year. She posted the two lowest scores on the team in the first two tournaments this year, but her coach and teammates alike attribute that to nothing more than the sporadic game of golf.
“I think that’s golf, you never know what links might come out of the bag on a given day,” Schemm said. “You go through little slumps every now and again, and I think Kelsey’s a good player. She’ll come out of it, and I’m sure she’ll be doing fine soon.”
Schemm transferred to UW before her junior year and has become a regular player for the team since then. She has played the course previously with her former team and knows what to expect from The Club at Old Hawthorne.
“It’s a really good course, very difficult, and you’ve got to hit good shots on there,” she said. “So it’ll test our skills, and overall, I think we should do pretty well as a team and keep placing in the top ten of tournaments and top five, hopefully.”
In addition to the tough course, the Badgers will face stiff competition in No. 26 Tulsa, No. 46 Arkansas, and Big Ten rival No. 48 Indiana.
The key to taking on tough holes and tough competition is to take the game one shot at a time, according to Werwie.
“I try to stay pretty calm throughout the round,” Werwie said. “Just pick a spot and you just have to be comfortable with the results.”
“I really haven’t gotten myself in any trouble on any holes so far, but I really just try to take it one shot at a time and not worrying about what could happen,” she continued. “I think that’s why I haven’t had any high numbers.”
