Hello Illini Nation!

Following a highly productive training trip, the team was excited to get the spring season started with the UCF Challenge, held at Eagle Creek Golf Club in Orlando, Florida. I would like to extend my thanks to UCF and the staff at Eagle Creek for helping to put together a great event!

We flew into Orlando on Friday night ahead of our practice round on Saturday. We were up bright and early on Saturday and had a very informative practice session and round. Despite some rain early on in the day, the skies ended up clearing up and made way for a beautiful afternoon! For dinner, we went to Bolay, which is a Florida-based restaurant. We all really enjoyed the unique selection and tropical ambiance! After dinner, we had a team meeting and rested in anticipation of the next three days of tournament play.

On Sunday morning, we all awoke excited to kick off the spring season! Despite some unseasonably cool temperatures and windy conditions, we were greeted by the Florida sun. We started off the first round with a bang, leading the field after the first 9 holes. My personal highlight from the first round was my hole-in-one on #11! I was very excited to have had the opportunity to share the special moment with our assistant coach, Pina! Following the round, we all had a solid practice session and went to a hibachi restaurant for dinner. Back at the hotel, we had some time to work on homework and watch the Super Bowl!

We had beautiful weather on both Monday and Tuesday. Although we did not capitalize on all of our scoring opportunities, we gained a lot of useful information and valuable learning opportunities from the UCF Challenge that we will employ going into the rest of the season!

Go Illini!

Reena Sulkar