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

Hi Wildcat fans,

Just wanted to give you all an update on how we are doing in our home event this weekend. We played our first round yesterday and shot 312 and we’re one back of UCF. One of the highlights of the day was when Ashleigh holed out her third shot on the par 5, 16th for eagle from 105 yards!

All in all it was a really tough day due to cold weather and sustained winds of 30mph. It’s usually pretty windy out at big blue, but yesterday was worse than normal. The scores were high overall and we were only one back of UCF coming into today.

Today was even colder than yesterday due to a cold front that we have coming through. We talked a lot about attitude before we teed off because who ever can handle this weather the best will have an advantage so it is very important. This is a very tough golf course so you really have to grind all day and finish strong.

We shot 309 today so we improved some. Ashleigh shot 73 which puts her in 2nd and Ashlee shot 75 and that puts her at 4th right now. Those were both great scores today and with a good round tomorrow they will both have a chance to win this tournament individually.

Last night was parent night so all the girls went with their families since most parents came to watch. Usually we have the parents come with us but since it’s the home event we decided this was better and it would give the girls more time with their parents. This evening we went out to eat and we had some good Italian for dinner.

Tomorrow we have a shotgun start at 9am and we are pumped! We are five back and are in contention to win this tournament. We need to focus on ourselves tomorrow and go to work. This is the fun part about college tournament – being in the hunt and having a chance to win!

Please cross your fingers for us tomorrow or hold your thumbs if you are in Sweden

GO CATS!!

Golda

Hi Everyone,

We have had an eventful last couple of weeks here in Lexington after we got home from Texas. The girls got to catch their breath after we got home with their usual day off and then we got right back to work a couple of days later. The weekend came very quickly which was exciting because we had a home football game vs. Louisville. There was a lot of hype before this game as Louisville is our biggest rival and this was a must win for our team. The game turned out to be really good, but unfortunately they got the best of us in the end and won. It was a tough loss for us, but we’ll be back next year!!

During last week we had our three rounds of qualifying and since Ashlee Rose and Ashleigh Albrecht finished top 10 last week they were exempt and did not have to qualify. We played for two spots and then I decided to have a coaches pick for the fifth spot on our team. It really came down to the wire with the girls but in the end it was Heather Lott who stepped up and won and Betsie Johnson got the second spot by one shot ahead of Megan Moir. We are excited for our home tournament this weekend and it should be a fun event!

This past weekend we had our first women’s golf reunion. We had a great turnout for the first year and had about 30 former players come. We played some golf on Friday and played a fun scramble, everyone was paired up with former teammates and a current player or coach. It became really competative and I have to admit, my team got beat by Lucy’s group by 1 shot. It was a tough loss and I think we will have to have a rematch very soon! On Saturday we had a tailgate for the football game vs. Florida. We had a great time and I think everyone enjoyed hanging out and then we played some cornhole of course. And just so you all know, Ashlee Rose and I are undefeated as a team in cornhole!

The reunion was a great success and I was very happy with the amount of players that came back. We are really excited about the future of this program and I think it is very important for the younger generation to be able to interact and hear about the programs of the past and at the same time for the alumni to see where the program is going and to be a part of that. 

Here is a picture of the whole group that played golf!

Thanks for keeping up with the Wildcats!!

GO CATS!!

Golda

We finished Top 3! YEAH!!!

Today was our last day in the tournament and we ended up shooting +14, 302 as a team. This put us in third place overall and we were able to beat a lot of great teams that are ranked ahead of us. Including Michigan State (16), Oklahoma (27), Texas A&M (24) and Tulane (23). Texas ended up winning the tournament with Auburn close behind. 

We started at 8.30am with a shotgun start and we played with Texas A&M and Florida State. We got off to a better start today and Ashleigh really got things going early. Unfortunately she had a couple of three putts coming in that hurt her, but she added another Top 10 to her college golf resume and I am proud of her for that! 

Ashlee also had a great tournament and had a final round of 76 today. This is one of her best finishes in her career and to do it in this field is a great accomplishment! She has come a long way and it’s so much fun to see her play with such confidence right now. 

Heather had a much better day today and she finally beat this course. This course had her number and she let it get the best of her the first two days. She stayed tough today and controlled her thoughts and her emotions. I am proud of her for stepping up and playing well for us when some of her teammates were struggling. 

Betsie got off to a rough start today and struggled to find fairways and greens early in her round. Unfortunately she didn’t trust her game as well today as she did the first two days and the course got the best of her. I am proud of her for fighting through it and I know she gave it her all on every shot!  

Megan also got off to a rocky start today. She hasn’t been feeling well all week and I thought she would pass out on me a couple of times.  She had a wet towel wrapped around her all day and she sat down on her clicgear chair as much as she could to help save her energy. She hit the ball great all week, but unfortunately her birdie putts weren’t dropping to make up for some of her bogeys. She fought hard all week for every shot and I am very proud of her for how she played this week. 

All in all we played well this week. We played smart and created opportunities. We will continue to work hard and we have a long season ahead of us. I am excited about our finish and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the fall has in store for us. Our goal of a top 5 finish can be checked off the list and now it’s time to move to the next one!  

GO CATS! – Golda

Hi Wildcat Fans,

It was a tougher day for the wildcats today. We shot 313 and that put us in fourth place. Ashleigh and Heather struggled right of the bat and had a tough time getting anything going with their rounds. Megan, Betsie and Ashlee got off to better starts and were able to hang in there for most of the round. Ashlee posted a +2 and she is currently in a tie for 7th place individually.

Megan played really solid through 12 holes and then the heat got the better of her. She has struggled with it each day and hopefully tomorrow she can pull through and finish strong. Betsie unfortunately just had a couple of swings get her in trouble today. This golf course will really jump up and bite you if you have one bad swing.

After the round some of the girls wanted to practice and some just needed to get out of the heat. Once we got back to the hotel we had a team meeting because I really wanted the girls to understand what a great experience this was for us today. For us to play in that last group was important, that’s what we strive for in every tournament, to have a chance to win. We need to be in this position so we know how to handle our emotions when we get nervous about being in contention. We are staying positive about this round and we will do better tomorrow.

For dinner we had some seafood at FishDaddy’s and then we drove around A&M’s campus to see what it looked like. We finished off the evening with some frozen yogurt and now the girls are packing their suitcases for our trip back to LEX tomorrow evening.

Tomorrow’s round is a shotgun at 8.30am so I hope you will all follow us on www.golfstat.com and cross your fingers or hold your thumbs for us!

GO CATS!!

Golda

Hi Everyone,

I am really excited to start this new blog and I hope that all of you will enjoy it as well. The purpose of this blog is to give you a better insight to how it is to be a player on the UK Women’s golf team.

We are finally on the road for our first tournament of the year. The trip here went smoothly and we arrived in College Station around 5pm.

The first day of the tournament was today and we ended up shooting +11, 299. This was a great first round for us. We were able to control our emotions and play with confidence. This golf course requires a great deal of course management and this is something that we have worked on. So I am proud of them for how they handled themselves and for how they placed the ball. Only three teams shot around 300 so this was a good way to start the season.

We are finishing the evening with ice bath’s to help the girls recover faster from the heat today. Our first tee time is at 9am so make sure you cross your fingers for us tomorrow!!

Thanks for following the Wildcats!

GO CATS!!

Golda