Staff Writer- Nathan Swanson
The Gustavus Women’s Golf team went to Hastings, Minnesota, this last weekend to host the two-day Gustie Spring Classic. There were a total of 11 competing teams out in Hastings playing at the Emerald Greens Golf Course. With this being the first spring tournament for the team since the conclusion of the fall season, they were excited and looking forward to getting out and playing again. The weather conditions, however, especially for Saturday, proved to be a challenge. Especially this time of year in April, the weather can change daily, going from optimal to suboptimal golfing weather. The winds were tough and bitter, along with the rain, which made it difficult to adjust to the speed of the greens.
“It felt great to get back out on the course as a team and see all of our hard work from the offseason start to pay off, especially in tough weather conditions,” First-year Addison Longie said.
Longie ended up winning her first collegiate tournament, finishing first out of 75 total golfers. She earned individual medalist honors for the weekend, and on Tuesday this week she was named the MIAC Women’s Golf Athlete of the Week.
“I’m most proud of how our team battled through the rain and cold on the first day and then handled the wind on the second day. Personally, I was proud of my iron play and was able to hit greens in regulation and give myself good opportunities to get up and down around the greens,” Longie said.
Within the opening round on the first day, Longie led the team after shooting +4 through 18 holes. She finished the day in 2nd place, just one stroke back of Lilly Kaminski from UW-Eau Claire.
“Our message this week was to play competitively. We knew that our short game was going to be rusty since we had been practicing indoors, but it was important to commit to every shot. Heading into Saturday, I focused on executing and committing to all of my shots and taking my time around the greens,” Longie said.
In ninth place, and with the second-best score, Senior Lauren Hubbard shot +9 for the Gustavus A group. Junior Mary Kate Hewitt also shot +9 within the opening round for the B group, and was in a tie with Hubbard. Closing the top four among the A group, both Senior Emily Kolb and Junior Riley Zebroski shot +12 and were in a tie for 21st place.
For the second day, Sunday, Gustavus finished the tournament in second place, shooting +64. UW-La Crosse won the tournament, shooting +60 and ended up just 4 strokes ahead of the Gusties. In third place, UW-Eau Claire finished the tournament shooting +65. The weather on Sunday was better than the day prior, but the wind was still a factor. Regardless, the better conditions helped the team finish strong and put themselves in good positions.
Longie had an excellent Sunday as she shot +3, winning the tournament +7 overall. On her last hole, she made a clutch putt from six feet out which put her over the top.
“It was really exciting. I didn’t look at the leaderboard all round, but I knew the putt was important. It meant a lot to have Coach Moe with me on the green and to celebrate my first collegiate win as a freshman,” Longie said.
Kaminski from Eau-Claire finished in second place, shooting +8. Zebroski for the Gusties shot +6 for the second day. This put her in 12th place overall with the second-best score for the team. Hewitt had the third-best score as she shot +20 and tied for 15th place overall. Kolb tied for 17th place overall on Sunday, shooting +9 and finishing +21 for the tournament. First-year Teckla Wahlstrand had the fourth-best score for Gustavus shooting +9 for the second day. She tied for 21st place overall at +24 for the weekend.
This next weekend, on Saturday, April 18th, the Women’s Golf team will play in the Bethel Spring Invite hosted by Bethel University. This two-day tournament will be played in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, at the Oneka Ridge Golf Course. Following the Bethel Spring Invite, the team will head to Northfield, Minnesota, and play in the St. Olaf/Carleton Invite. This tournament, which will be held April 25th-26th, will be played at the Willinger’s Golf Club.