Indiana University Athletics
Women's Golf Looks To Build in Puerto Rico
2/11/2016 8:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
By: Sam Beishuizen, IUHoosiers.com | Twitter
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Collegiate golf is an individual sport manipulated into a team game. Though players take pride in representing their school, there's virtually nothing they can do to impact one another's scores on match day.
Players drive the sport.
The 2016 Indiana women's golf season is a start of a new era in that regard. Elizabeth Tong—one of the most decorated and consistent players in recent program history—graduated at the end of 2015. Her absence has created unfamiliarity at the top of the Hoosiers' lineup that has head coach Clint Wallman anxious to see what happens in the first few weekends of competition.
"We see this in teams sometimes, like last year, I think people may have relied too much on (Tong) to produce a number," Wallman said. "We've got some really, really great players, and I think they're more focused on taking care of their business this year. So even though we might have lost a very good player, I feel like we're a much stronger unit because everyone has stepped up their games to try and replace that."
Wallman's theory will undergo its first test of the championship season over three rounds at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic played at Rio Mar Country Club's River Course in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The 16-team field features four of the top-8 teams in Golfstat's rankings and four other Big Ten teams the Hoosiers will have already been familiar with.
"It's a really good field, but we're not really even worried about the field," Wallman said. "We're worried about ourselves. I think we're all just really excited to get down there and play and see what we can get done."
Indiana's coaching staff has preached constant, consistent improvement from the players heading into a new season after one of the better fall schedules in recent memory. IU ended the fall with a team score of 847 at the Las Vegas Showdown, setting a new program record for lowest team score over three rounds in a tournament.
The program's new all-weather learning center has allowed the team to continue training throughout the winter months. As a result, Wallman estimated that his players were about a month ahead of schedule in terms of ball striking and all-around play. The putting and short game aspects remain a work in progress after spending last week practicing in Arizona.
During the trip southwest, Indiana's players recorded seven rounds at par or better out of 24 total rounds between eight players. In the same trip last year with 13 players, the Hoosiers had just one round at par or better.
"The thing that's really changed for us is we're not as much worried about ball striking now because we've been practicing that (at the new facility)," Wallman said. "The putting, the chipping and all that stuff is pretty universal. You've just got to get on grass and work through that. But between being able to practice all winter and getting out on the courses we've already played, it's definitely put us much further ahead."
Wallman said one of the more optimistic signs at this point in the season is the amount of fine tuning players are doing. After spraying the ball a little too much in Arizona, freshman Eva Domingo was able to spend one-on-one time with Wallman at Indiana's practice facility Tuesday afternoon to diagnose her swing with the new technology available to the team.
By the end of the session, she left more confident knowing what she had to do to fix her mistakes, and she hasn't been alone.
"For her to really get in here and diagnose that and fix it, she becomes more consistent," Wallman said. "Our players have been able to really get to the core of what they need to be doing now that the rounds are starting."
Wallman said the results of this weekend's opening tournament won't be as important to him as the progress the Hoosiers make. But he is hopeful the tournament format and the excitement of a new year help ignite some intensity among his players.
From there, everything else is fine tuning.
"Make ourselves better every day: that's kind of been one of our mottos," he said. "And that means doing the little things right and being committed to being better."
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Collegiate golf is an individual sport manipulated into a team game. Though players take pride in representing their school, there's virtually nothing they can do to impact one another's scores on match day.
Players drive the sport.
The 2016 Indiana women's golf season is a start of a new era in that regard. Elizabeth Tong—one of the most decorated and consistent players in recent program history—graduated at the end of 2015. Her absence has created unfamiliarity at the top of the Hoosiers' lineup that has head coach Clint Wallman anxious to see what happens in the first few weekends of competition.
"We see this in teams sometimes, like last year, I think people may have relied too much on (Tong) to produce a number," Wallman said. "We've got some really, really great players, and I think they're more focused on taking care of their business this year. So even though we might have lost a very good player, I feel like we're a much stronger unit because everyone has stepped up their games to try and replace that."
Wallman's theory will undergo its first test of the championship season over three rounds at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic played at Rio Mar Country Club's River Course in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The 16-team field features four of the top-8 teams in Golfstat's rankings and four other Big Ten teams the Hoosiers will have already been familiar with.
"It's a really good field, but we're not really even worried about the field," Wallman said. "We're worried about ourselves. I think we're all just really excited to get down there and play and see what we can get done."
Indiana's coaching staff has preached constant, consistent improvement from the players heading into a new season after one of the better fall schedules in recent memory. IU ended the fall with a team score of 847 at the Las Vegas Showdown, setting a new program record for lowest team score over three rounds in a tournament.
The program's new all-weather learning center has allowed the team to continue training throughout the winter months. As a result, Wallman estimated that his players were about a month ahead of schedule in terms of ball striking and all-around play. The putting and short game aspects remain a work in progress after spending last week practicing in Arizona.
During the trip southwest, Indiana's players recorded seven rounds at par or better out of 24 total rounds between eight players. In the same trip last year with 13 players, the Hoosiers had just one round at par or better.
"The thing that's really changed for us is we're not as much worried about ball striking now because we've been practicing that (at the new facility)," Wallman said. "The putting, the chipping and all that stuff is pretty universal. You've just got to get on grass and work through that. But between being able to practice all winter and getting out on the courses we've already played, it's definitely put us much further ahead."
Wallman said one of the more optimistic signs at this point in the season is the amount of fine tuning players are doing. After spraying the ball a little too much in Arizona, freshman Eva Domingo was able to spend one-on-one time with Wallman at Indiana's practice facility Tuesday afternoon to diagnose her swing with the new technology available to the team.
By the end of the session, she left more confident knowing what she had to do to fix her mistakes, and she hasn't been alone.
"For her to really get in here and diagnose that and fix it, she becomes more consistent," Wallman said. "Our players have been able to really get to the core of what they need to be doing now that the rounds are starting."
Wallman said the results of this weekend's opening tournament won't be as important to him as the progress the Hoosiers make. But he is hopeful the tournament format and the excitement of a new year help ignite some intensity among his players.
From there, everything else is fine tuning.
"Make ourselves better every day: that's kind of been one of our mottos," he said. "And that means doing the little things right and being committed to being better."
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
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