Reena Sulkar reports after the Illini traveled to Florida in January for the annual training trip in preparation for the spring season.

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Hello Illini Nation!

I am very excited by the return to collegiate tournament golf this semester! In preparation for our Spring season, the team and I were fortunate to have had the opportunity to take our annual Training Trip down in Florida last week. We had the privilege of playing three different courses with varying layouts, all of which will serve us well as we prepare for our upcoming competitive season!

On the first day, we had the opportunity to practice at Legacy Golf Club in Bradenton. After a solid short game and range session, we headed over to The Founder's Golf Club in Sarasota, which is the site of our first tournament. The opportunity to play The Founder's Club proved to be very beneficial as we were able to develop our initial course strategy and study the greens. We also happened to run into a couple of Illinois alum out on the course!

The next day, we made the 1.5 hour drive down to Tiburón Golf Club in Naples. We had plenty of time in the morning to practice. We teed off later in the afternoon and were able to finish our round just as the sun was setting! That night, we drove back to the Sarasota area as we had an early tee time the next morning.

We teed off bright and early at River Wilderness Golf & Country Club in Parrish. We were initially met by some early morning fog, which eventually gave way to beautiful sunny skies. After the round, we enjoyed lunch at the course and had a solid block of time to practice before having to depart for Tampa International Airport.

All in all, the trip proved to be very productive, as we were able to put into practice what we have been working on for the last several months and hone in on areas we want to focus on as we prepare to depart for our first tournament of the season, the Heroes Ladies Intercollegiate, which is set to take place on February 7-9. With classes having resumed this week, we are all excited by the start of the spring semester, both athletically and academically. We all look forward to taking advantage of the time we have this coming week to put into practice some of the insights we gained during the Training Trip before we depart for Sarasota next Friday!

Go Illini!

Reena Sulkar