The Illinois women’s golf team will be heading into the Westbrook Spring Invitational with limited course experience against a competitive 13-team field. 

Arkansas, Washington and Texas Tech, all top-25 teams, highlight the competition that will be playing the Westbrook Village Golf Club par-72, 6,269-yard Vistas Course, from Sunday through Monday in Peoria, Ariz.

“Having played the golf course last year, we’ve got some experience (and) know what to expect,” head coach Renee Slone said. “We’ve got the notes from last year of the golf course and (we’re) really making sure that the team members review those notes.”

Those notes, along with photos of the different holes of the course, will prove key in the team’s preparation. Only one Illini making the trip has actually played the course. Junior Ember Shuldt’s experience playing in last year’s Westbrook Invite will help the younger players this year.

“We actually have team meetings, and I’ll bring up topics like this,” she said. “I told everyone on the team this course is definitely very scoreable, not a lot of trouble (and) it is shorter.”

Players and coaches say the course does not pose any unique challenges, but the characteristics have dictated the types of shots taken in practice.

“It was mostly more of our basic chip shots (and) a little bit of lag putting,” assistant coach Jackie Szymoniak said. “This course is fairly straightforward. We kind of like to start with this golf course for a reason in terms of our regular-season play.”

The team has been focusing more on lower chip shots for the relatively low area around the greens, shorter par-4 holes and mid-range putting.

“I’ve been working more on bump and runs with my chip shots,” sophomore Samantha Postillion said. “I know that I’ll have a lot of short irons or wedges into the greens, based on the yardage that we have for the course.”

Coming off a win at the Illinois Challenge against Illinois State, Illinois is looking for another good result to start its spring season on a positive note and to continue a streak of quality outings the squad has had in the last couple of competitions. The last time the team played in an invite, it had its best round of the season by breaking 300.

“I think everybody definitely grew from that experience and the confidence levels are starting to increase,” Szymoniak said. “Part of that, obviously, is we prepare as much as possible, and we try and encourage them to get their confidence off of the preparation.”

Confidence has been the signature message of this practice week, the team said, because the levels are about as high as they have been in a while. Despite the tough competition, the Illini are poised to make noise this spring season. Still, the coaches are maintaining that steady message that they hope will keep the team’s morale up.

“Results, yes, are what we want at the end of the day; however, we need to be able to be confident regardless of purely the score on the scorecard,” Szymoniak said. “So they’ve put in the time, energy and effort on both the mental side as well as the physical side. So by piecing together those, then we should be able to play some great rounds of golf.”

Alex can be reached at [email protected].