The Lady Buffs golf team met victory for the second time in a row on Sept. 27 after competing in the Lady Buffs Stampede Invitational Tournament.
Head Coach Meredith Jameson said this win combined with their win at the Colorado Christian University Invitational on Sept. 11- 13 marks the best start to a season the Lady Buffs golf team has ever had.
“In golf, it’s not like other sports…where you play one team when you go,” Jameson said. “There were eight or nine teams in the first tournament and 10 in the second. When you win, you’re beating more the one team, so a win is a big deal.”Lady Buffs shot a team score of 300 on Monday and 301 on Tuesday, carding a total of 601 to finish out the two-day tournament. They were just ahead of Western Texas, who finished second with a 606 total score. Alisa White, a senior Journalism major at WT, claimed first place in the individual standing with a total score of 144. She shot a 70 on Monday and 74 on Tuesday, her best college tournament round yet.
“Everyone played well and mostly everyone improved the second day,” White said. “It was our home course so it was kind of inspiring.”
Senior Hammerli Sriyai finished four strokes behind White with a 148 total; 73 the first day and 75 the second. Tied for 13th were junior Lindsay Shoot and senior Eva Rogers carding a 155. According to Rogers, it wasn’t her best individual score, but not her worst.
“I did great for not doing great,” Rogers said.
According to Coach Jameson, two wins in the same season is a rare occurrence for most teams because of the number of competitors in a single tournament. The two wins did not come without drawbacks, however. Maternity leave toward the beginning of the season rendered Jameson partially unavailable for some tournaments, leaving it up to the players to attend the first two tournaments without a coach.
“When they played there practice round on Sunday in Colorado, one of the girls called me and was like ‘how do I hit this shot?’ So I explained it over the phone,” Jameson said. “It’s like remote coaching.”
Despite the inconvenience, the Lady Buffs have found ways to take advantage of Coach Jameson’s temporary absence and still challenge themselves as a team.
“We’ve learned a lot for ourselves,” Rogers said. “We won two tournaments without her…so we know what were capable of.”
Jameson said this year’s team is the strongest WT has ever had due to the equality of skills and depth each player possess. The difference between this year’s team and past years is the collected unity among the players and their ability to get along on and off the course.
“This is the team,” Rogers said. “We get along so great. There’s really just that team unity there that wasn’t there before, but now everybody’s together, which makes a huge difference.”
The Lady Buffs will travel to Oklahoma City on Oct. 3-4 to compete in the Central Oklahoma Invitational.
