Women's Golf Opens Season with High Expectations
9/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
Sept. 4, 2009
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Entering head coach Mic Potter's fifth season at the helm, the University of Alabama women's golf team looks to build on the momentum created by two of the most successful seasons in school history, and solidify its place as one of the premiere programs in the nation.
The Crimson Tide begins the 2008-09 season on Sunday, Sept. 6, when they tee off at the NGCA Match Play Championships in Daytona, Fla. It is an event that the Tide took second place in last season. Alabama will face a challenging 16-team field, featuring 15 teams that finished in the top 50 of the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings last season, on the par-72, 6,339-yard LPGA International Legends Course.
The event is a hybrid stroke play-match play format in which teams compete in a 36-hole stroke play qualifier to determine seeding for the match play portion. The field includes seven teams from the Southeastern Conference led by the Tide, Auburn, LSU and Georgia who all concluded last year ranked in the top 15. Duke, who defeated UA in the finals last season, returns to defend its title.
"We start with the NGCA match play, and last year's match play I think was a real springboard for us when we made it the finals," Potter said. "Our team experienced some things in that tournament last year that they probably never experienced before competitively, so I think it's good to have that in our first tournament. It will be a good building block for us."
Last season the Crimson Tide finished in the top five in nine-of-12 events against a challenging schedule last season, including a team title at the First Market Bank Invitational and second-place finishes at the SEC Championship and NCAA Central Regional.
Despite losing the services of two-time All-American Kathleen Ekey, the Crimson Tide returns a wealth of experience from last year's team that spent the entire season ranked in the top 10 and finished tied for 11th at the NCAA Championships.
"You can't say enough about the confidence and the momentum it builds being at the national championships and being paired with teams like Southern Cal and Purdue in the first two rounds," Potter said. "Playing with those teams that are always at or near the top, and realizing, we did this all year and that we're as good as they are. We just need to believe that we're as good as they are."
Junior Camilla Lennarth enters this season as Alabama's most accomplished returner and boasts an impressive list of achievements in two seasons with the Tide, including honorable mention All-America honors last year from the National Golf Coaches Association. She led the team in scoring average last season at 73.70, the third-lowest total in school history, and finished in the top 15 in nine of the 12 events she competed in. The Stockholm, Sweden native has four top five finishes in 23 career events.
"(Camilla) is one that I see stepping up this year, and really feeling like she belongs," Potter said. "Being named an All-American last year I think surprised her a little bit, but I think now she sees that she's capable of not only honorable mention but first team. When she stays focused and stays positive, she's a great player."
Sophomore Brooke Pancake put together a dazzling freshman campaign, and will be relied on heavily in her second season. Pancake notched five top-10 finishes during her first year with the Tide and ranked as the nation's best in fairways hit, driving the ball in the short grass 92 percent of the time.
Seniors Helena Blomberg and Rhea Nair have competed in a combined 54 tournaments in three seasons with the Tide and both have proven themselves capable on the biggest of stages. Blomberg has six career top 10 finishes including a seventh place at the SEC Championships her freshman year. Nair sat out the fall season last year with a wrist injury, but played all seven spring events and won her first collegiate medalist honors at the First Market Bank Intercollegiate.
"I think that Helena and Rhea coming in with more than three years of experience each competing with our team and at the intercollegiate level that we compete at now, it will all come together for them this season," Potter said.
Junior Courtney Harter has shown flashes of brilliance in her first two seasons at the Capstone showcased by her victory in her first collegiate tournament, the Wildcat Invitational in the fall of 2007. Harter has played 20 events for the Tide, and last season she posted the team's lowest 18-hole score with a 67 at the Cougar Classic.
"How good your team is really comes down to depth more than anything else," Potter said. "The fourth and fifth players are huge. So how they play will tell us how good of a team we're going to have. All three are very capable; they're all three capable of being All-Americans."
Adding to the depth of experienced performers for UA is incoming freshman Jennifer Kirby, who is currently dominating on the Canadian amateur circuit. The Team Canada member from Paris, Ontario, has won two straight national competitions, first at the Royale Cup Canadian Women's Amateur Championship followed by the Royale Cup Canadian Junior Girls Championship.
"Jennifer has shot the scores that would indicate that she can step in and play for us and do well," Potter said. "She's the only person ever to win the Ontario Junior, Ontario Women's Amateur, Canadian Women's Amateur and Canadian Junior in the same year. I think the thing that I like best about her is that she seems to be incredibly mature, incredibly self-reliant. It's clear to me that she can play at this level."
The Crimson Tide fall schedule will have some familiar stops from past seasons along with a few new events, including this weekend's NGCA Match Play event.
UA also returns to the Legends Golf Club in Franklin, Tenn., to play the Mason Rudolph Women's Championship before playing the Tar Heel Invitational and the Landfall Tradition to wrap up the season.
The highlight of the Tide's spring schedule comes in April when Alabama hosts the SEC Championships for the first time since 1998. The tournament will be held at the NorthRiver Yacht Club marking the first time that the SEC champion will be crowned in Tuscaloosa as the last time UA hosted, the event was played in Birmingham.
"We're excited about hosting our fellow SEC members and doing a good job to make it the best SEC Tournament ever," Potter said. "We hope to get the Tuscaloosa community involved too."
Players Mentioned
