Ball State women's golf opens up its spring season at the Ball State Sunshine Classic this weekend at the St. Lucie Trail Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
The team had two top-five finishes in five events in the fall season and looks to do better in the spring.
"In the fall season we gradually got better and throughout the offseason, we've worked to improve on all areas of the game," head coach Katherine Mowat said.
Senior Kelsey Sear led the way during the Cardinal Cup, recording a T73 finish and shooting a 78, 81 and 84 during the 54-hole tournament for a total score 243. Junior Morgan Nadaline and sophomore Sydney Anderson also led the Cardinals, shooting totals of 244 and 245 respectively. The team finished with a total score of 975.
Anderson leads the team in scoring average with a 76.67. Sear is not far behind and averages a 77.33 this season so far. Both Anderson and Sear both had multiple top-20 finishes during the fall season for the Cardinals. Anderson did struggle with her putting in her last event, recording two scores in the mid-80s.
"This offseason, I worked on a lot of putting and worked with the wedges. I got new wedges so I worked with them a lot," Anderson said.
Anderson and Sear were the team leaders for all five of the events that the Cardinals played in during the fall.
"Sydney had a self realization about the game of golf last year and she worked hard so she could be on this level," Mowat said.
The Cardinals' two top-5 overall finishes came on back-to-back tournaments early in the fall. The team placed fourth out of 16 teams at the Cardinal Classic in Yorktown, Indiana, and placed second out of 10 teams at the Kzoo Classic in Portage, Michigan.
During both of those tournaments, all four scores that were counted were scores in the mid to low 70s. Both Sear and Anderson shot scores in the low 70s and high 60s. At the Cardinal Classic, Anderson had rounds of 69, 73 and 78 over the three days while Sear had a pair of 75s and a 74. Sear and Anderson were also the only players who were the top finishers for the team in all five events, with Sear being the top finisher for three of the five and Anderson for the other two events.
Shooting scores in the low 70s and 60s is nothing new for Anderson. She placed second in the Indiana PGA Women's Open this past summer, shooting rounds of 73 and 68. She also placed in a tie for seventh in the Indiana Women's Golf Association Golf Championship with a score of 75.
"A lot of my success with the team is from practicing and playing in the summer," Anderson said.
The team will play at the St. Lucie Trail Golf Course in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The team started their spring season in Florida last year as well, but they played in Estero, Florida.
"We haven't seen this course, but our biggest challenge will be to get the nerves out as this is the first tournament of the spring season," Mowat said.
The Cardinals will begin play this Friday and will play through Saturday.
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