Hello Illini Nation!

Going into our second month of the spring season we were excited to have the opportunity to go to the Westbrook Invitational in Peoria, Ariz. hosted by the University of Wisconsin.

After arriving in Phoenix on Thursday night, our host families kindly welcomed us with their warm and generous hospitality.

With the unusual snowfall in Scottsdale, we had to make a quick change of plans and were able to utilize the practice facility at Wigwam Golf Club. We took the advantage of having an extra day of practice before the tournament to focus on improving our game. The hail and rain we encountered on the course only helped us gain experience playing in various weather elements. Later that night, we enjoyed dinner with numerous Illini supporters and alumni. It was wonderful to see many of them come out and cheer us on at the tournament!

Following our practice round, the Phelps' hosted the team for the dinner at their home. Mr. and Mrs. Phelps have hosted Coach Slone for six years! This was a great chance for the team to get to know the new host families as the other three families hosted the University of Illinois for the first time.

The first day of the tournament arrived and we were ready! We followed our regular tournament routine with a team huddle and words of support for each other. The weather was a little chilly in the morning as we had a 30-minute frost delay. We shot a 287 (-1) the first round with a 288 (E) to finish the day in eighth place. A big shout out to former Illini women's golf team member, Hailey Koschman, her dad, Bob, and father of former team member Katelin Dilger, Tony Dilger, for coming out to support the team at Westbrook.

Going into our last day at Westbrook, we kept our heads up and committed to every shot to fight until the end. The weather was much improved from our first two days in Arizona. The team showed a lot of positive energy from across the fairways. The team shot a great score of 280 (-8) charging to third place. Our freshman from Thailand, Kornkamol Sukaree, played a phenomenal round with a score of 66 (-6) on the last day. Overall, our positive energy was the driving force of our strong finish.

We will be heading down to South Carolina for the Briar's Creek Invitational on March 18-19 for our next tournament.

Go Illini!

Crystal Wang

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