Women's Golf searches for mental toughness

The fall season has not exactly gone the way the women's golf team would have planned. On tough courses against even tougher opponents, the team has left its last two tournaments with the disappointing results."So far we have not been able to put everything together. We seem to have a few players that play well at a time but not all five," said Head Coach Jen Hanna.

The Lady Paladins teed up two weeks ago in the Tar Heel Invitational, held in Chapel Hill, NC. Facing some of the toughest competition in women's golf, the team struggled to a 15th place finish.

As she has done for most of the past year and a half, Stefanie Kenoyer, a sophomore from Lighthouse Point, Fla., paced the Paladins, finishing in a tie for tenth place individually, six shots behind the tournament medalist.

The Lady Demon Deacons of Wake Forest won the three-day tournament by twelve shots over the University of North Carolina.

A week later it was déj… vu all over again as the Lady Paladins showed signs of life only to fall slightly short in the Mercedes-Benz Women's Championship held in Knoxville, Tenn.

The three-day tournament was a bit of a roller coaster for the ladies, as four out of Furman's five players recorded a round of par or better, boosting the ladies into contention for top 10 individual honors.

However, the team could not shake off the big scores as it limped home to a 12th place finish with senior Blair Lamb of Flat Rock, N.C., leading the team in a tie for 13th place individually.

While golf is an individual sport, in team competition, the team can only be as good as its highest score. And for the Lady Paladins, minimizing the big numbers which lead to high scores will be a must for the team to accomplish its goals this season.

Hanna says that the Lady Paladins will need to sharpen their mental game in order to attain positive results.

"I can see a lot of improvement in their physical games, but at this time I feel that the mental side is our biggest hurdle," said Hanna. "I do not feel we are where we need to be mentally."

The Lady Paladins will not have much time to recharge their mental engines as the team will travel to Auburn, Ala. for The Derby Invitational, the last tournament of the fall campaign.

With a tough field full of Southeastern Conference powerhouses, the Lady Paladins will need the whole team to play well physically in order to compete. But for this immensely talented women's team to really reach its full potential, it will need the whole team to dominate mentally.