The women’s golf team capped off a successful conference campaign with a second-place finish at the Lone Star Conference Championship with a team score of 628, 12 strokes behind of champion Tarleton State.

The team held a seven-stroke lead after the first day with a score of 311. Taylor Klutts finished in fourth place with a score of 154. The senior ended the first day in second place with a score of 73, one stroke behind then-leader and eventual champion Glory Jangthongsiri of West Texas.

Sophomore Brenna Moore trailed close behind Klutts with a score of 156 for sixth place, followed by senior Kendra Whittley with a score of 160 to tie for ninth place.

Senior Lindsey Burkhart and senior Lauren Romines rounded out the team’s score, tying for fifteenth and ninteenth with scores of 161 and 163, respectively.

The second-place finish comes after last season’s second-place finish in which the women made it to the regional tournament, but were not able to advance to the national tournament.

“Last year, we got second at the LSC tournament, and we basically fell short and got second at every other tournament.” Whittley said. “We did advance to regionals, but we didn’t make it to the national tournament. Since most of us are seniors this year, we were hoping we could win the LSC, advance to regionals and eventually make it to nationals.”

Whittley said the winning Tarleton State was the team’s only competition they were worried about heading into the final round of the tournament, hoping for an upset win over them before Tarleton sneaked their way back to the top.

Leading the team

Unlike the men’s team, which is made up mostly of underclassmen, the women’s golf team had the luxury of having four seniors outnumber its two sophomores and one freshman.

One of these two sophomores is Brenna Moore, the LSC Freshman of the Year from the 2011-2012 season, as well as a first-team All-LSC selection.

“Having mostly returners has been a huge advantage this season, especially to the other girls,” Whittley said. “We’ve been able to show them the ropes and tell them what to do and what not to do from what we’ve learned growing up throughout these four years.”

Prepping for season play

The women prepared to follow up and expand on last season’s success through different practice habits like the men did. Head coach Jeff Ray took a hands off approach and let the women practice more individually than as a team to work on their own needs.

Along with their new practice schedule, the women also prepared for the season by playing in more tournaments.

“We’ve been playing a lot this semester, and they always says the best way to practice is to get out there and play,” Whittley said. “That always prepares you more for a tournament, and it gets you in real-life scenarios.”

The extra tournament play paid off for the team, as the women placed in the top two teams in seven of their nine tournaments played this season, including first place at the Oklahoma Intercollegiate at Cameron in October, and also at the MSU Invitational in March.

“Although we would like to win all of the tournaments, it really was an honor to win our own (tournament),” Whittley said. “We were the ones that started the program here at MSU, so for it to be our senior year, and for us to finally be able to pull out the win was surreal.”

The wins didn’t stop for the women on the green, as four golfers were selected to the All-LSC team.

Klutts, who won her first collegiate tournament at the Las Vegas Desert Classic, was named to the first team, while Moore and Whittley were both named to the second team. Whittley also made the All-Academic team, as well. Burkhart was named to the honorable mention team to round out the team’s recipients.

Preparing for the future

After the conference tournament, the women still have two more goals set for the season.

“After the LSC we’re just going to continue to practice and get ready for regionals,” Whittley said. “Our regional is in Grand Junction, Col., so we’ll be ready for that, and we hope to advance to the national tournament after that.”

No matter the outcome, Whittley and the other seniors are sure the team will continue the success of this season next year with the team in the capable hands of Moore and the other underclassmen.
“Losing all of us (next year) will be starting back at square one,” Whittley said. “But luckily, there will be the two other girls left to show the new recruits what to do and lead them.”