Coach Dowling Recaps Fall, Previews 2012 Season
Monday, February 6, 2012 | Women's Golf
Opening statement
“Can't tell you how excited I am to get going. We leave this Saturday for your first tournament which is the Northrup Grumman Regional Challenge. It's a wonderful event. The Gators have been heading to that tournament for quite a few years in a row. I love going out west. I try to get a trip out west once or twice a year for a lot of different reasons; one is weather; two is to be competing against the best teams in the country. Right now the number one team is UCLA. In order to beat them, we've got to play them. It's also a great measuring stick for us as we head into the rest of our spring. It's a tough golf course; fast greens and you have to hit the ball really solid. For me, it's a wonderful measuring stick right at the beginning of the year. You cannot hide your weaknesses out there and we'll be able to come back and be prepared knowing what we need to work on for the rest of the spring. There are two teams in the top-five and, I think, seven teams in the top-15 or 20 in that tournament so again, a wonderful field and a wonderful challenge for my team.”
“For the rest of the spring we will be going to the Allstate Sugar Bowl which is in New Orleans and then we host our home tournament, the SunTrust Gator Invitational. We are very excited to be playing at home. It's not very often that golfers all throughout the different levels of competition get to golf at home. It's a wonderful experience to be competing on your home course and in front of your home crowd. The dates are March 16th through 18th and I would love to have people out cheering us on. We have a wonderful support staff and a wonderful booster program that help us run the event. The last event of the spring before our post season begins is the Liz Murphey. Again, a wonderful field, a great golf course and it will also, for our team, a preview of the 2013 NCAA Championship. We have great tournaments that I think will prepare us really well for the postseason.”
“As far as our team goes, we're building on what we did in the fall. We had two tournaments where are team was in contention along with individuals. Camilla Hedberg was in contention at the Cougar Classic, which was our first event. She finished eight-under and broke a school record in her first tournament as a collegiate golfer, which I thought was pretty darn cool. And Mia Piccio, at the University of Texas was leading heading into the last day and had a rough final round but sure handled herself well and got our team in contention to win, too. We also had two mediocre tournaments, which means we still have a lot of work to do. We've been focusing a lot on individual preparation, focusing on, not only on practicing hard, but also focusing on what we're practicing. It's extremely important to be efficient and effective while we are down there practicing. I think they've done a great job. We are in the midst of a team qualifier right now, which again is great competition and allows us to prepare really well for our first tournament. It's the only time we can really simulate tournament play which I think is an extremely important part of preparing for tournaments and we'll be finishing that up today so I can give you lineup this evening.
“As far as our personnel goes, Marika Lendl is still on in the injured reserve list, which is unfortunate. She had pretty major should reconstructive shoulder surgery. She's still on the mend and still working hard on her rehab. There's a possibility of her coming in the spring but we're just taking it day-by-day. Also, Buddy touched on it but I wanted to talk about our brand new facility. We are extremely excited. Hopefully it will be done in mid-March. And again it's just a wonderful recruiting opportunity and it's a wonderful coach Buddy Alexander to help prepare our teams. There are two beautiful hitting bays, a putting lab, including SAM, we have a flight scope, fitness room, club-repair room and it's just a wonderful addition to our already great facilities.”
On the strength of schedule in the spring compared to fall…
“It's very similar. It's actually the exact same spring season that we had last year and again its four great tournaments. I would say our home tournament is a much better field than it has been in the past two years. It's as good as or better than it was when we hosted the NCAA Regionals. We've got two teams in the top-five. Alabama is ranked number two and Auburn is ranked also in the top-five. It's going to be great to be trying to beat them out on our home course so we're looking forward to it.”
On what the team has been working on during the break between fall and spring seasons…
“Good question. Quite a few of them played in amateur events throughout Florida throughout the Winter Break, which was great for them. Again, it's an individual thing. Some want to take some time off and others want to keep competing so I just allowed them to base their schedule on their preferences and what I felt was best for them. We started practice, about a month ago now, and just really working on the individual stuff.”
On what will be the biggest challenge for the team next week…
“I think, believing they can win, because that's extremely important. I believe they can do it. They know it's a tough field and I think if we can get ourselves in contention I think it's going to be great for the rest of our season. I think it's extremely important for them to be able to control their distances with their irons. The greens at Palos Verdes are very, very slick so they have to be on the right side of the pin at all times. Distance control is probably the biggest thing and putting. They're very fast greens and we've got to get our speed down in our practice round. If we do those things, I think it's going to be a good tournament.”
On what to expect from Mia…
“She's chomping at the bit to get her first tournament win. She was in contention at the University of Texas and obviously had some other very good finishes. She has worked so hard throughout this offseason, working on her golf swing, working on her short game and truly just getting out on the course and playing a lot and trying to go low. For her, it's just her mindset of when she gets out there in that position. She was disappointed in the way that she finished her fall but at the same time, every great player goes through that. Every great player gets in contention and kind of gasses it going in to the final round and you have to sometimes go through that before you can get your first win but I'm confident that she's prepared very well and should feel very confident about the way she's prepared.”
