WOMENS GOLF: Irish shuffle lineup, look for consistency
By ANDY TROEGER
Sports Writer
For the fourth consecutive tournament the women's golf team will be have the same goal: to finish a tournament with a 312 per round average.
Coach Debby King will lead her team to the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational today and Tuesday in Wichita, Kan., as part of the 16-team field.
"This is a medium field, probably a little stronger than our home field tournament," said King. "I'd like to see us be in the top five and to continue to strive for 312 consistently."
The Irish will also continue their lineup shuffling for this weekend's event, as all of the golfers have continued to shuffle through the lineup.
"It's hard to pick [the five golfers who get to travel each week]," said King. "I don't know who's going to play [from week to week]; Rebecca Rogers has really started coming on strong and playing well of late."
Rogers, a junior coming off her best performance of the season last week, will lead the Irish from the No. 1 position. Also traveling to Kansas are freshman Katie Brophy, sophomore Karen Lotta, junior Shannon Byrne, and freshman Sarah Bassett.
King's decisions are made more difficult because golf is one of the few team sports that does not allow any kind of substitution once the competition begins. She is forced to decide who will play before the team leaves for any given tournament, then has no recourse if someone struggles.
"It's kind of frustrating that everyone can't get it together at the same time," said King. "Someone might have a good round and someone else has a bad one. But we're a young team and it is going to take us more tries to get experience."
The golfers hope to put it all together this week in Kansas.
All Sports Stories for Monday, October 14, 2002
