Women’s golf hits Ind. for season’s 3rd tourney

By Rhema Rhea

Women’s golf will try and get back to shooting past records when it travels to Yorktown, Ind., for the Cardinal Classic today and Tuesday.

NIU and the rest of the field is set to tee off at 7 a.m. both days. The Huskies will follow up the opening round with another 18 holes on Tuesday.

The Huskies couldn’t stay away from the big numbers last week at the Louisville Cardinal Cup hosted by Louisville, finishing 72 strokes over par during the three-round invitational (313, 308, 315, 936). NIU finished 11th out of 17 teams during its second outing of the fall season.

“Louisville was a tough tournament for us,” said head coach Kim Kester. “That tournament played a little bit longer yardage-wise than some of our other tournaments we’ve played, so I think that was a little bit of a shock for our ladies.”

NIU had problems hitting the ball on many of the holes during the Louisville Cardinal Cup. Sophomore Sydney Brickey was the most consistent Huskie, hitting 70’s in each of the three rounds. Kester said she hopes the Huskies can be more consistent this time out and avoid big numbers.

“Our biggest thing is to stay away from big numbers,” Kester said. “That Louisville tournament, we had a fair amount of doubles [bogeys], and doubles are more, and that’s what kills you. You’re not going to win if you’re having a lot of those, so if we can keep those reduced and hit a lot of greens we’ll do all right.”

The Huskies will shake up the lineup, with freshman Hayley Mortensen playing in her first college tournament and first tournament as an individual golfer.

“She’s worked really hard since she’s got here,” Kester said. “So, it would be good to see her in tournament action, and hopefully we’ll get six players playing to their level and hopefully [they’ll] bring back a trophy.”