As usual it’s been a while since I last wrote on this blog so I thought I’d give you all an update on what is happening in the world of Kentucky Women’s Golf. After we came home from Gainesville and our spring break we took a little mini break and we gave the team a couple of days off to catch their breath. That gave them some time to catch up on their school work and to take a short break from golf. You will find that there are a lot of pictures in this blog, a couple of them have been “photo bombed” by Lucy…:)  Enjoy!

We had about a two and a half week break before we flew to the Bryan Collegiate which is co-hosted by UNC-Greensboro and Wake Forest. In that time we got back to working hard and we continued to focus on our shortgame and putting in particular.  Once it was time to leave I felt like we were ready to go and since Lucy and I knew the golf course fairly well we felt good about the preparations that we had had leading up to this tournament. At the event we did not get off to a great start, but with two days left we knew we had a chance to move up the leaderboard. I wasn’t very concerned with what we shot the first day, we foucsed more on us and what we needed to do to play better the second and third day. The girls all worked hard after the round and we left the golf course feeling pretty good about ourselves. During the next day we struggled again and I felt like we gave away a lot of shots due to some course management issues and due to some mental struggles. We had a long talk after the round and the girls once again got after it on the putting green and range. That night we also were invited to go to the minor league baseball team in Greensboro. We went for about an hour and had a great time, I bought a mini baseball bat so that was kind of exciting!

The next day we had a good feeling and again we were close to playing well and beating some higher ranked teams. Unfortunately we didn’t quite finish the round and made some mistakes on the finishing holes to finish in 13th place.  After this we came home and immediately started to prepare for the SEC Championship in Fayetteville, AR. We knew it would be a challenging course, but again we had an advantage in Lucy since she played for the U. of Arkansas. We went through the course and we tried to simulate a lot of the shots that we would have at the Blessings golf course.

Knowing the difficulty of the Blessings we talked a lot about having a good attitude during the rounds. The team that stayed the most patient, had a good attitude and played smart would eventually win this Championship. We had a good practice round that took over six hours, after that it was time for the rules meeting/welcome dinner where we had one of the best meals that I have ever had during my time in collegiate golf! It was amazing! And thankfully, someone had put our table closest to the buffet so we got to eat first! You should have seen the dessert table at this dinner, I haven’t seen anything like it since I was vacationing in Egypt!

As you probably saw from the scores from the SEC Championship, the course was pretty tough and we knew we needed to battle on every single shot and on every single hole. Our team did a good job of that, but unfortunately we didn’t quite play as strong as we would have wanted and we finished 9th. However, before we left for the event, I did say that if we could finish Top 9 then that would be good. It would be an improvement from last year and we would possible beat a couple more teams ranked ahead of us. We did just that, we even beat Tennessee who are ranked 15th in the country. At one point we had Vandy and LSU in our reach and that says a lot about this team and the talent that we have!

After we got back the girls were mentally exhausted and again they got a day off as soon as we got home. The next day we spent just having fun, we had a chipping match play competition and a putting one as well. Our well deserved winners were Betsie and Liz and they had to fight hard for those wins!

Now we are waiting to hear where we will get sent for regionals. The sites are, Penn State, Ohio State and Colorado. I am not quite sure where we will go, but PSU would be nice because half of Pennsylvania would be out there watching since my husband is from there.

So please cross your fingers or hold your thumbs for us next week when we travel to regionals and I will be sure to write the blog right after to give you an update on how it went.

GO BIG BLUE!!

Golda

Hi everyone, it’s been a few weeks since my last update and a lot of things have happened since then. We have played in two tournaments and during this time we also had our spring break.  Our first stop was Baton Rouge, LA for the LSU Golf Classic. This is a tournament that we go to every year, it has a great field and we love coming to Louisiana. They changed the course two years ago and made it more of a championship style golf course. It’s extremely tough around the greens and you have to have a strong and creative short game to be able to play well there.

I felt confident going into the event because I knew how hard we had worked and I felt that the girls were playing well. We got off to a decent start the first day, but before we left the course we worked on some things so that we would feel more comfortable and positive leaving the course. The second day was better for us; we improved on our score a great deal. I think they still felt like they left some shots out there, but it was very important for me that they understood that we as a team had had a great day.

During this event we have a host family, so after the first round we had dinner with them. It was delicious! We had lasagna, salad and dessert of course.  And then after the second round we were invited to Heather Lott’s house for dinner. She is from Baton Rouge originally and was excited to be back home if only for a few days.  To add to the excitement, Heather’s mom had rented a Frozen Yogurt truck to come to her house. This team is addicted to Fro Yo and we have it on every trip at least a couple of times so it’s needless to say the whole team was ecstatic!

During the last day of the tournament we got off to a rough start, we were able to pull it back together in the middle of the round, but unfortunately we lost some shots coming down the stretch as well.  It was a disappointing day for us because we were very close to beating some great teams and we were close to breaking through. This team can be great, we just need to keep believing and let it happen. It’s easy to start to force things when this becomes a reality so we just need to keep doing what we are doing, relax and play some golf.  In the end we finished in 7^th, beating two teams that were ranked ahead of us, one of them being Purdue who won the National Championship two years ago and was runner up last year.

After the tournament was over we had a couple of days to spend in Baton Rouge for spring break. Unfortunately the majority of my team is
injured so we spent the Monday in the LSU training room getting treatment, then we went to Edwin Watts to buy a putter and then we headed to practice. There were thunder storms all day that day, but thankfully we got a break in the afternoon so we could get some quality practice in. During the second day we got to play Baton Rouge Country Club, it’s one of the most exclusive courses in town and it was the perfect preparation course for the Florida tournament. Tighter off the tee and smaller greens with lots of trouble around them. We had a great day there and the girls really loved that place. Instead of playing for score we played for points and they could hit however many shots they wanted for practice.

On Wednesday it was time for our next trip and we were headed to Gainesville, FL.  Once we got to the day of the practice round it became very clear that Ashleigh Albrecht could not play for us. She had been checked out by a Dr. at LSU for her ankle pain and he suggested we shut her down completely. A part of me and her were still hoping that the ankle would heal miraculously in a couple of days, but that was not the case and she couldn’t put any weight on it or shift her weight to her left side in her swing.  It was a tough decision to make, but when a player can’t walk, you really don’t have a choice.  I still felt very confident in my five players and I knew that we could still have a great week despite not having one of our best players.

And just that happened on the first day, we played great! We were in fourth place after the first day and I told the girls that this is the team that we can be. This is the golf that we are capable of playing, we just need to stick to our game plan, focus on ourselves, relax and play golf. Unfortunately we weren’t able to do so the next day, the team was tense and the attitude was different on the course. We were playing tense golf instead of relaxing, knowing that we had nothing to lose. Despite us having a bad day we didn’t lose much ground and we were in 6^th place after the second day. After the round we had a great talk as a team and I think we all felt ready to finish the tournament on a strong note with a good attitude.

On the last day the team was in a great place in the morning, everyone was positive, had a good attitude and a great focus.  Despite this we got off to a rocky start, we started on some tough holes, but we also made some poor swings and we carried those with us instead of letting them go.  During the middle of the round we did better, but we weren’t quite able to finish out the day. We just weren’t able to stop the bleeding that last day and that led to an 11^th place finish at the Lady Gator Invitational.   Again, we were very close to breaking through as a team and I wanted the players to realize that. The bad swings wasn’t about technique that day, it was about our minds and believing that we could be that
underdog team that could be successful.  We will continue to work on our confidence, trusting our games and believing that we can be great.

Before this semester is over, we will have our breakthrough tournament!

GO CATS!!!

Golda

It’s only two and half months into 2012 and I’ve already broken my resolution of updating this blog. So it’s time to get you caught up!

The first weekend the girls were back in school we packed up and headed to warmer climates in Tampa, Florida. UK has a great alumni group there that was willing to help us out with finding places to play and practice. But before we even got to Tampa we had some issues. We were supposed to fly out of Louisville that night, but unfortunately everything was delayed so they sent us to fly out of Cincinnati. So, after sitting in the Louisville airport for a long time waiting on our flight, we got back in our van with all of our luggage and headed to Cincinnati. Thankfully everything was on time the next morning and we got to Tampa around noon. This meant that we had lost almost a whole day of practice, but the girls stayed patient and positive and when we got to World Woods Golf Course we were all ready to play some golf!

On Sunday we spent the morning practicing at the Saddlebrook Resort after spending some time in the pro shop waiting for the frost to lift! Then in the afternoon we played a fun 18 hole tournament with that alumni group at Lexington Oaks Golf Course. We had a very successful day and we are looking forward to making this an annual trip!

We returned back to Lexington on Monday night and the girls were exhausted. They had all given me all of their energy and it had paid off – the trip to Tampa was worth every penny!

Once we were back home, the hard work continued. We had about a month before we left for our first event, so there was no time to slow down. Lucky for us, the weather here has been great this winter, so we were able to play a ton on grass and really started knocking the rust off.

The UCF Challenge was a great starting point for us. As a team, we played really well there last year, so being able to carry those emotions with us was a huge confidence booster. However, in typical tournament fashion, the weather shifted while we were there. The course had said that the weather had not been below 72 all year; we saw temperatures of 54/64 the first two rounds. That didn’t detour this Cats from wearing shorts all 3 rounds though! As a whole, we played solid. We were able to post 3 consecutive rounds under 300 and finish in 8^th place. I really feel like our girls are close to playing their best and since it’s still early in the spring season, good things are right around the corner.

So now we are back home, resting, recuperating, and getting a practice plan in place to help us prepare for our next event at LSU. We struggled a bit with this course last year, but I think we have a better idea of what we need to work on to be ready for the challenge that’s ahead.

Have a great weekend everyone and GO BIG BLUE

!!

Hello Everyone,

I hope that everyone is enjoying this new year so far, I know we are! I can’t believe how fast 2011 went by and especially the holiday season. I love Christmas and I get so excited to give my presents away, and then poof! It’s over, it’s quite sad.

We had a good end to the year here at UK. We finished up our season at the Alamo Invitational and then we spent the rest of the fall working out, practicing and catching up on our classes. The team did very well this past semester in school and had a team GPA of 3.44. I couldn’t be prouder of their performance in the class room as well as on the course!!

Now we are starting up a whole new semester next week and we will start that off by flying to Tampa, FL over the MLK weekend. We are practicing  and playing at three different courses throughout the weekend and I am looking forward to having some fun competitions along the way. I will be sure to keep you posted on who wins those! During our stay we will also play with some of our UK alumni.  They aren’t women’s golf alumni, but we have a very large number of former UK students in that area so we are looking forward to playing with them one day.

Before we head to Tampa we will have our girls TPI screened. We are doing this so we can see how they have progressed throughout this past semester physically and where we need to go next. All of the girls are at different levels so they will all need a different excersise plan to reach their goals. I can’t wait to see how they have improved this past semester!

When we come home from Tampa, it’s time to get to work. We will have about a month to get ready for our first event which is hosted by Central Florida. This is where we had our highest finish as a team last year when we finished 4th and this is also where Ashleigh Albrecht tied for the win so she will be defending that title! The girls really like the golf course and I know they will be inspired to play some great golf there.

I hope that you will keep up with us throughout this semester and one of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to update this blog more frequently so I will be sure to do so!

Happy New Year everyone and as we say in Sweden – God Fortsättning!!

Golda

Despite the name, it has been a busy offseason, both on and off the course. The girls are getting caught up (and hopefully ahead) on school work and are starting to prepare for finals, while Lucy and I get things set for next semester and beyond.

During this time, we are limited in the amount of hours we can require of the team. During the season we get 20 hours with the team, now we only get 8 and only two of those can be for golf. However, we have been able to pump up the volume in the weight room and I think it is really paying off.  Because we only have them for a short time, we try our best to make it count. But sometimes, we just like to have a little fun. Last week, we had our very own Big Break: UK. We set up different skills challenges (putting, chipping, pitching, and playing) to test the girls. They had a blast with the “drills” and getting back into competition mode. At the end of the day, Liz was our Big Break champion. Hopefully, we will find time to do more of this next semester.

Thanksgiving break was a welcomed vacation. Of course, there was work involved beforehand. Lucy and I traveled to Florida to do a bit of recruiting. We enjoyed the typical Florida weather with some sunshine and some rain showers and the golf was pretty good to!  Tuesday night, we boarded a plane to different locations: Lucy to Oklahoma City and me to Lexington.  Lucy then traveled a little further north to Cameron, MO. She described as being in the middle of nowhere, in the trees, with no cell service, surrounded by family. Don’t worry; she had a blast catching up with everyone! I, on the other hand, returned to Lexington then caught a flight to State College, PA, to be with Steve and his family. You would not believe the amount of pies (14) his grandmother made! She of course had pumpkin pie, lemon meringue and something called lemon verbena. It was all so good! On Friday, we drove to Gettysburg and toured the battlefields. Steve and I are both very interested in history and we had been wanting to make the trip for a while. It was great! We went on a two hour tour and learned a great deal of new things, it was very intriguing to say the least. We ended the evening at his grandmothers house for some meatloaf, don’t you just love being home!!??

But now, we are back in Lexington, getting ready for the UNC basketball game on Saturday. It should be a pretty awesome game since our men’s basketball team is now ranked nr. 1 in the nation!! Our Christmas break is around the corner and New Year’s Eve will be here before we know it. Time flies when you’re having fun!

I hope you all have a great rest of the week and GO BIG BLUE!!

Golda

Hi Everyone,

It’s about a week ago now that we finished the last round at the Alamo Invitational. We got off to a good start at the tournament and shot +2 as a team the first day, the second day we shot 295 and we finished up with a 298 today. We were all over the leader board during this event and we ended up finishing in 4th. We also had Liz and Ashleigh finish in T8th which was a very good performance. Liz really stepped up her game this week and it was fun to watch! Ashleigh has been solid all fall and I couldn’t be happier for her for adding another top 10 to her college career.

One of the nights we had parent night and we went to a local Mexican restaurant. The food was great and we had some really good laughs at the end of the night. During this whole trip we have been trying to find frozen yogurt since the team craves it all the time. However, apparently San Antonio hasn’t jumped on that band wagon yet because we couldn’t find a good place at all. We actually ended up eating custard one night which was great because Ashleigh had never had it before! It also didn’t help that our UK gps was failing us this trip. It kept acting really weird and I think I took a few wrong turns because of it. Through it we found out how big this city was though and thank goodness I only live in a town like Lexington!

Overall I am proud of my team for their performance this week and this entire fall. We achieved all of our goals and then some. It’s amazing to me what happens when you work hard, play with heart and truly believe and see what is possible. We have come such a long way in this year and a half and I can’t wait to see what the next semester and the coming years will bring.

Now it’s time for off season and I think the girls are ready for it; I think we all are! It’s been a long semester and now they can really catch up on some much needed school work. We will also focus a lot more on our weight training which might inlcude some yoga and some spinning classes! 

I’ll write soon and give you guys an update on how it’s going!

GO BIG BLUE!!!

Golda

Hi Everyone,

Well a lot of things have been happening since I last updated this blog. I meant to update this last week, but time has a tendency to disappear on me. Last time I wrote this blog we were in Knoxville, TN at the SEC/Pac 12 Challenge. We struggled at that event and finished in 20th. We played better each day and I think we finished the event on good note. We shot 298 the last day and it was great to see the girls step up and play some good golf that day. Ashleigh Albrecht had a great event and finished T7th in a very strong field. I am very proud of her, both for her composure during the week and of her game. She put herself in contention to win the tournament and once the putts start dropping on that last day she will be unstoppable out there!

In the picture above – Ashlee Rose and myself during the very cold practice round in Knoxville. At this point in time we were all laughing at Ashlee and the hole that she found in her pants.

Oh, and we also met Rosie Jones at the tournament. She was being honored at the event so we made sure to take a picture and to introduce ourselves to her. She shared some thoughts about golf and about the Solheim Cup since she was the most recent captain. It was really interesting and I truly hope that the girls learned something from what she had to say. During the Friday of the tournament we supported breast cancer awareness with our pink UK hats. All we saw was pink around the golf course as all the teams were wearing pink, it was very pretty

We got back to work that following Tuesday and worked hard. We only had four days until we travelled to San Antonio so we had some intense practices. Unfortunately we had some rain and thunderstorms move in so we weren’t able to play any before we left. But I think we prepared ourselves well for this upcoming event that starts tomorrow. During the week Lucy thought it would be a good idea to get mini pumpkins and have the team carve them. A couple of the girls have never carved a pumpkin and I have only done it once in my life so we figured why not!? So, we went and got these super cute pumpkins for us all to carve and then we had a carving party last Thursday before we left. The girls all loved it and carved all kinds of things. Here  are some pictures of how they turned out:

On Friday it was time to hit the road and get on a plane to San Antonio, TX. This is our last tournament of the fall and it’s hard to believe that we are already here. We actually had a smooth trip and got in on time. We are staying right downtown in San Antonio and this morning we went to the Alamo before heading out the course for the practice round. We got to just walk around the Alamo and we met two very nice Air Force cadets that had just graduated from bootcamp. They were very friendly and kind enough to take our picture! During our stay here we are playing at Briggs Ranch Golf Club and this place is beautiful! And let me tell you, UTSA sure knows how to host an event because I have never seen my team so excited about their tournament gifts as they were today

For the first round we play with Baylor and Texas Tech so that should be fun. We tee off around noon so keep an eye on us on www.golfstat.com.

I hope you will follow us during the next few days and send us lots of positive thoughts!

GO BIG BLUE!!

Golda

Hi everyone,

This week we are in Knoxville, TN for the SEC/PAC 12 Challenge. We are really excited to be here and today was our first round. We had our practice round yesterday and it was tough. We had 30 mph wind and it was maybe 50 degrees for a high. Some teams didn’t even play all 18, they just chipped and putted for the back nine. We played all 18 and had a good practice round. Some of the girls were struggling so we practiced some after as we always do.

We felt ready this morning and the girls were itching to play. Playing with us was Oregon, ASU and Auburn. We had a good group and we had fun. However, we struggled as a team today and shot 312. The truth is, we came out and played tense golf today, we struggled to commit to our shots and we played with fear. It’s tough to play your best that way, but we had a good talk after the round and I strongly believe we will do better tomorrow. We need to focus on our game and ourselves instead of everyone else.

As a side note, Ashleigh played really well and she shot -2 which puts her in a tie for fourth place. I am really proud of her and of her performance today. She has been sick leading up to this, but she stayed tough today and played with confidedence! I am excited to see what the rest of this weekend has in store for her.

Another exciting thing was that we got to meet and take a picture with Rosie Jones, the Solheim Cup captain. She was being honored at the banquet tonight and she said some really good things in her speech…hopefully all these players listened to what she had to say! It was pretty neat, however, I think my assistant Lucy was the most excited about meeting her this evening

I hope you will all send us positive thoughts tomorrow and keep you fingers crossed for us!

GO BIG BLUE!!!

Golda

Hi Everyone,

Last week and this week is preparation week for our upcoming tournament in Knoxville, TN. We are going to play in the SEC/Pac 12 Challenge. Stanford hosted this event last year and now it’s Tennessee’s turn. We are excited about this tournament and it will be our toughest one in the fall. The SEC and the Pac 12 are the two most competative conferences in college women’s golf so this event will be fun to follow!

After the Bettie Lou Evans tournament we gave the team a couple days off because we felt like we all needed to recharge our batteries after such an exciting weekend. Once we got back to practice we had theme days, such as putting, chipping and then wedge game. Then after that we had a day of competition and the goal was to accumulate points from all the excersises.

Last Sunday we spent a few hours with some middle school kids from a local school. We did a short clinic first and showed them some shots and talked about golf in general. After that we played a nine hole scramble and I believe Ashleigh Albrecht’s team won. The day ended with some delicious cookie cake!

Sometimes as players we don’t quite realize that we are rolemodels so this was a great experince for the team to be around kids and for them to see how much they are looked up to.

We also found out some great news this morning, we are now 18th in the Golfstat rankings! We haven’t been a Top 20 team in the nation in a long time so this is a great start to the year! Now we just have to keep our heads down and continue to work hard!

GO BIG BLUE!!

Golda

Dear Wildcat Fans…

We WON our home event and Ashleigh WON the individual title! It was such an amazing week and I couldn’t be a prouder coach right now of my team. They have worked so hard in the last few weeks and I think we were well prepared for this tournament. I find that it’s always easy to take your own course for granted when it comes to your home event so we worked extra hard on the course so that the girls would feel even more comfortable out there.

We set the pins with the girls a while back and we have used them during qualifying and everything so that the girls would know what was coming. I really wanted them to take ownership of the tournament and be proud of our event and I think all of that helped.

This win this weekend was no gimmie and we had to work hard for three days to earn it. UCF had the lead the first two days and I think it was a good thing that we had to come from behind the last day. This was a great experience for us to be in contention and to come out on top. This was a team effort win and it all came down to the back nine. We pulled off some amazing shots that included a chip in from Ashlee on her 18th hole and a drained 30 footer on Heather’s last hole as well. Those are some clutch performances that we will always treasure and remember!

Ashleigh’s performance was very strong this week and I am impressed with the poise that she showed coming down the stretch. She knew that she was tied going into nr 16 and that she had to make something happen. She didn’t get ahead of herself and she ended up winning the title by one shot. Ashleigh has a very bright future and if she continues to work hard their will be no limits as to high far she will go!

Ashlee and Betsie also finished in the top 10 this week and they also did something extra ordinary, those are some of their best finishes ever in their collegiate careers and what a feeling to be able to do that on your home course in front of your family and friends. Our home golf course is tough and their last round scores were clutch in order for us to win the team title! It is so great to see their games come together and to see them believing in themselves and their teammates!

I am excited about the rest of the fall and this will help our confidence a great deal. We will enjoy this win and keep working hard for the tournaments to come. Next we head to the SEC/PAC 12 Championship in Knoxville, TN . This will be our toughest test this fall but we have played the golf course before and I think the girls will be very comfortable going back to Tennessee.

Here are a couple pictures from our tournament -

To see more pictures, please click here: http://www.ukathletics.com/view.gal?id=102693

Thanks for keeping up with us!!

GO BIG BLUE!!

Golda