Women’s golf gets sneak peek of ODAC championship course
The women’s golf team looks to take advantage of an opportunity not every team gets: playing on the same course that will host the ODAC Championship
For the Gennies to repeat as ODAC Champions, Liza Freed, ‘18, will need to keep playing as well as she has lately. She placed fifth out of 120 competitors in the Jekyll Island Collegiate on March 18. Photo courtesy of W&L Sports Info.
April 4, 2016
The ODAC championship looms just around the corner for the Washington and Lee women’s golf team.
On April 2 and 3, the defending ODAC champions hosted the Match Play Preview at Wintergreen Resort in Nellysford, Va. The showcase allows players to survey the course they will be playing during ODACs, as well as get a chance to practice in the match play system.
The Generals will also have the opportunity to see ODAC competition. The Generals will be teeing off against Bridgewater College.
“[The Match Play Preview] is the first time our team has played a match play event, so it should be a fun day to get to go head to head with one of our biggest rivals,” captain Sara Moir, ‘16, said.
Match play differs from more traditional “stroke play” in many ways. At the base level, the biggest difference is in the scoring. While stroke play involves counting up the total number of strokes each golfer has at the end of the round and the lowest score winning, match play is more of a hole-by-hole competition. Each hole is scored independently and the golfer who wins the most holes wins the round, regardless of cumulative strokes.
Bridgewater will present a particularly intriguing matchup, as they will likely be one of W&L’s tougher competitors at ODACs.
“The teams in the ODAC have improved year after year, so we will have some strong competition in the tournament, especially with Bridgewater and Randolph Macon,” Moir said.
Following the Match Play Preview, the team will have three weeks without any further competitions to prepare for the ODAC championship. These three weeks will be ample time to build or cut any current momentum.
W&L will look to Liza Freed, ‘18, to keep her momentum going from the team’s last competition at the Jekyll Island Invitational on March 20. Freed shot eight over par and placed fifth out of the 120 golfers at the tournament to help her team to a finish of 12 out of 23.
“This year Liza has probably performed the most consistently, but in ODACs I would like to see all four of my teammates really shine,” Moir said. “If we are going to win we really need the whole team to perform at top level.”
In the highly mental game of golf, this lag between competitions could be a blessing or a curse. The Generals will need to remain focused in the coming weeks and make sure to not come out of the break rusty. The ODAC Championship will take place on April 24-26 the Wintergreen Resort in Virginia.