Men and women’s golf face highly ranked fields this weekend
Ryne Gannoe / Senior Staff Writer
The Mean Green men and women’s golf teams both face highly ranked foes this weekend as the men’s team travels to Bryan, Texas, for the Aggie Invitational and the women’s team participates in the SMU Invitational in Dallas.
SMU Invitational
The Mean Green women’s golf team starts the SMU Invitational Friday – its final tournament before the Sun Belt Conference tournament. The 15-team tournament hosts ten top-100 teams including No. 3 Oklahoma.
Sophomore McKenzie Ralston said the team has played better this spring, and the tough field will prepare them for the conference tournament.
“It will definitely give us a taste of what conference will look like,” Ralston said. “I hope it will give us the drive to see what it will be like to beat those teams in the end. We’ve learned more now about our game management and our course management and how we handle ourselves on the golf course.”
The team has no seniors, so head coach Jeff Mitchell said the team has been searching for leadership.
“Almost the whole year has been like herding cats,” Mitchell said. “Seems like everyone’s running around, but I do feel like we are coming closer together as a team. I’ve seen improvement from everyone.”
Mitchell hopes the sporadic high individual finishes can be brought together in a single tournament.
Freshman Georgina Mundy is coming off an individual tournament win last week. Her first place finish is the first by a Mean Green women’s golf player since 2001.
Mundy said the team struggled early in the season because it was inexperienced.
“It was just a confidence issue I think,” Mundy said. “We’ve all had a few top-10 finishes. I think that’s helped. Once we get out there at the SMU tournament we can play our own game and not worry about what everyone is shooting.”
Aggie Invitational
The No. 28 Mean Green Men’s golf team is one of the best in the country. But so is the rest of the field in the upcoming Aggie Invitational. The tournament includes 12 teams in the top 35, including four top-10 teams.
Lead by senior Rodolfo Cazaubon, who ranks No. 26 nationally, UNT achieved its highest ranking ever at No. 25 earlier this season. The Mean Green will need another spectacular performance from its only representative in individual top 50.
Traditions course, which opened in 2004, will be played at 72 strokes for par. Each team will field six golfers and the lowest five scores will be counted.
While UNT is playing well, it has struggled against top-25 competitors. UNT has only defeated two top-25 teams out of the 14 it has faced this season.
The first round tees off at 7:30 a.m. Saturday.
There are no comments at the moment, do you want to add one?
Write a comment