Hey Illini Nation,

Our team arrived home on Saturday from the Bettie Lou Evan's Invitational in Lexington, Kentucky. We played the Big Blue Course at the University Club. The Big Blue was what I would consider a typical Kentucky style course: vast fairways and large, undulating greens. Course management was key in order to end up with the best angle into greens, and approach shots demanded precision in order to avoid ending up with a long, multi-breaking lag putt. We gathered this information, and more, during our team practice round on Thursday.

We took to the course on Friday for round 1.  We finished the day in 5^th place at 7-over as a team.  Though we didn't come out as strong as we had in our previous two tournaments, we had two players sitting just outside the top-10 and some solid scores in round 2 would get us back into place.

Following Friday's round, the Nowlin family hosted a team dinner at their home in Richmond, Kentucky, which was only about a half hour drive from Lexington. Tristyn's family went above and beyond, decorating the house with an Illini theme and even making a cake for the team.  It's always special when we get to spend time with our families out on the road, so a big thank you goes to the Nowlin family for giving us a small break to unwind a bit during our busy schedule on the road.

The event was originally slated to be a three-day event, playing 18 holes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But with Sunday's forecast calling for storms, we ended up playing 36 holes on Saturday to make sure we got all three rounds in. Playing 36 holes on the final day presented a new test to both our physical and mental strength. The course is pretty open, and during the mid-day hours the wind gusts reached around 30 mph. Such strong winds made the course play drastically different than it had just 24 hours ago. We battled through the tough conditions, though, finishing around 7 p.m., just before dark.

Unfortunately, Tristyn came down with a fever and had to withdraw during the second round. Once she felt better she was back on the course to watch the team finish play. Both Grace and I finished the tournament at 4-over par and inside the top-10 individually, with Bing closely behind finishing tied for 13^th individually. The team finished the tournament in fifth place. It wasn't our strongest finish, but we have a lot of positives to draw from moving into the final weeks of our fall season.

Something that made this trip extra special was the fact that Keiko Price, our Sport Administrator, was able to travel with us. Tristyn, Ali and I had the chance to be in Keiko's car for the drive down to Lexington, and we had an absolute blast. Fair warning: do not challenge Keiko to a dance contest, as you are sure to lose. All jokes aside though, we are so thankful to Keiko for all the support this week. She was a trooper, walking all three rounds and cheering on each team member in the process.  We also wanted to extend a big thank you to Jay Scott and Jill Flessner for making the drive all the way from Champaign to watch us play on Saturday. There's always a little more motivation and energy present when we have fans out there cheering us on.

We have a short break before we travel to Louisville on October 21-22 for the Cardinal Cup. We hope to see some Illini out there to cheer us on!

Keep it in the short grass,

Dana Gattone