The Illini women’s golf team opened the 2005-2006 season this past weekend at the Notre Dame Invitational, where the team placed eighth out of eighteen teams. That number is deceiving however, as the team finished just six strokes out of third place thanks to a tremendous final round performance.

Illinois struggled early on in South Bend posting team scores of 319 and 323 in the first two rounds. The biggest problem area for the Illini came in mastering the tricky northwest, Indiana greens.

“We really struggled with putting the first two days,” said sophomore, Stephanie Mory. “A lot of the girls knew that was a problem, so we stayed late on the second day and really worked on our short irons and lag putting.”

A change in attitude also helped the Illini to position themselves for a final round comeback.

“I was pleased with how strong we came on the last day,” said Head Coach Paula Smith. “The team really focused on looking at the process of the round, not the outcome.”

The Illini golfers did just that, posting the second lowest team score of the final round with a 309. Leading the way was senior Megan Godfrey who shot a 75 and finished sixth overall in the tournament.

Godfrey was pleased with her performance, and said she plans on taking home a few more top tens this season.

“I would like to get as many top 10’s as possible,” said Godfrey. “I also hope to win some tournaments this year too. I won last year and I’d really like to revisit that feeling.”

Joining Godfrey and Mory on the Illini starting five were sophomore Seul Ki Park, sophomore Casey Burden and junior Meghan Naik. The starters were chosen based on the results of the six round pre-season qualifying period.

Coach Smith said she has yet to determine the five starters for next weekend’s tournament in East Lansing, Michigan, but she did say she would be sending the top four golfers from last weekend’s tournament along with one more player.

“We are really excited for this weekend in Michigan,” said Godfrey. “We know the course really well, and I think we are going to play a lot better than we did at Notre Dame.”

Mory, who will be playing there this weekend, grew up just five minutes outside of East Lansing and played at Forest Akers quite a bit.

“Going home to play is going to be a lot of fun,” said Mory. “My family and a lot of supporters from my home course are going to be there to watch me play.”

Mory’s best score at Forest Akers is a 74 which she posted at a tournament her senior year of High School.

Her knowledge of the course and the momentum from last week’s great finish, have the team poised to show the Big Ten what they can do this weekend.