The women's golf team is traveling to Williamsburg, Va. this weekend in hopes of better golfing weather, but history shows that a difficult trip could be in the forecast for this young Quakers squad.
For the fifth-straight year, the Quakers will compete in the First Market Bank Intercollegiate tournament, hosted by William & Mary. However, the event has so far been anything but easy for Penn.
In each of the previous two years, the women left Ford's Colony Country Club in 13th place, and their best finish was 12th in 2005.
With only five players on coach Francis Vaughn's roster and with afternoon showers in the forecast for Saturday, this time around might be even tougher.
"With tournaments this early in the spring you never know how the course is going to play because of the weather," sophomore Meredith Kotowski wrote in an e-mail. "This course has a few tough water holes and can play really long if it's wet."
In other words, a 350-yard hole might feel more like 450 yards to the golfers because of the way the ball rolls on the fairway.
As of Wednesday, Vaughn did not know which teams would be playing in Williamsburg, nor did that concern him.
"We won't find out until we get there, but it's one of the tournaments we play every year," Vaughn said.
"There are usually 15 to 18 teams that compete every year that know how to golf. I think it will be a good tournament, and the course is always in great condition."
If the Quakers are going to post their best finish at the tournament, they will need to reap the fruits of their offseason workouts. The Red and Blue have been using the indoor golf simulator at the Pottruck Center, and over spring break they flew to California to get used to playing a full 18 holes.
"We are looking forward to starting the season and testing ourselves after all of the practice we've done over spring break," Kotowski wrote in her e-mail.
"We've spent extra time putting indoors on our practice putting mats, which work on our alignment and speed. I think this weekend all of our hard work this preseason will pay off and our team will place well."
