Tweet: .@IlliniWGolf uses break to improve

The Illinois women’s golf team is in the midst of a long break
in between their last tournament, the Westbrook Spring Invitational, and
their next event.

The team has been on a break since this event ended Feb. 22.

Sophomore
Grace Park says she looks forward to improving her game, and catching
up with her schoolwork during this three week break.

“I’m going
to work on my putting stroke to be more consistent,” Park said. “I’m
also going to work on my distance control for chipping.”

Junior Stephanie Miller said that this break will give her an opportunity to catch up on her homework and study for exams.

The
scheduling was done with a purpose, the team played in events in back
to back weekends and now can reflect on that and focus on their
schoolwork.

Head coach Renee Slone said she would like her team to work on
their putting and finding ways to score even when things may not be
going ideal on the course.

“I know we are going to come around in
the next tournament,” Park said via email. “I know we all have something
we need to work on, so this break is a great time for us to practice.”

The Illini will head to Georgia to play in the 3M Augusta Invitational next weekend.

Illinois womens golf underpeforms at Westbrook Springs Invitational

The Illini didn’t finish as well as they had hoped in the Westbrook Springs Invitational.

The Illini continued to improve throughout the tournament, and had four players post their best round in the third and final round, but still finished 11th out of 15 teams.

“Last tournament I felt like the team was not able to perform to our full potential,” Park said. “We left a lot of shots out there.”

The total team score of 877[+13] overall, was the fifth best finish in program history, but it still wasn’t enough for the Illini to compete with the Invitational’s top teams.

Slone saw this as an example of golfers getting better and better every year, the bar has been raised for the players due to various reasons over the years, and the team will look to improve on this finish in there upcoming tournaments.

Hepler continues to recover from stress fracture in foot

Redshirt senior Katherine Hepler has been able to spend her redshirt-year focusing on her recoveyr from a stress fracture she suffered in her foot.

Hepler, who transferred from Missouri to illinois in the fall has been traveling with the team and cheering them on, despite not being able to play.

Slone says that her recovery is going well, and that she is making a lot of progress.

Hepler will begin competition next fall.

New swing, mental approach paying dividends for Miller

Miller spent her break between the fall and spring seasons working on a new swing, and strengthening her mental approach to the game.

Miller now has a shorter swing, and it appears to be paying off.

In the first two competitions Miller has had a lot of success. In the Illinois Challenge, a match-play competition against Illinois State she won both of her matches. She also finished second on the team, one stroke behind Grace Park at the Westbrook Spring Invitational with an overall score of +2.

“It is still a work in progress,” Miller said via email. “But I’m happy to see the changes that it has brought.”

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