Illinois freshman Isabel Sy reports on her first two collegiate tournaments in February.
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Hello Illini Nation!
We have just finished our first two tournaments of the 2020-2021 Spring Season! Our first tournament, the Heroes Ladies Intercollegiate, was held at the Founders Club in Sarasota, Florida. For me personally, I was super excited to play in my very first collegiate tournament with my team. Going to Sarasota was a dream coming true of finally competing on the collegiate stage. I was not the only one who was really excited as my teammates were so grateful to be playing as well after waiting almost a year to come back and compete as a team. The eagerness we all felt is what really drove us in our preparation for the tournament. The Founders Club is a great golf course that really tested our ability to place ourselves in the right positions with tight fairways and undulated greens. Upon arrival, we received a warm welcome from the hosts of the tournament and our concierge family. We also got to see and meet wonderful people who had previously attended the University of Illinois and are part of the Illini family. Luckily during our training trip, we were able to play the Founders Club, so during our practice round we were confirming our past observations and solidifying our strategy. After the practice round we were able to have a great socially distanced dinner. We also got to listen to some wonderful speakers that were really inspiring leading into the first day. On the first day of the tournament, it was so great to see all the teams because it really sunk in how fortunate I am that so many people came together to give us the opportunity to compete again. Throughout the tournament, we had amazing sunny and warm days. Overall, our team was able to remain gritty and kept pushing forward until the very last putt. We finished 10th overall, and it provided us with great feedback on our game for our next tournament, the Moon Golf Invitational.
We were able to head back to Champaign for two days in order to refine our skills before traveling to Melbourne, Florida.
The Moon Golf Invitational was held at the Duran Golf Club, a links style golf course. It had wide fairways and big greens with small lakes and ponds. During the practice round there was a thunderstorm so we were only able to play 9 holes. Fortunately, after the thunderstorm had passed we walked the rest of the course. On the first day of the tournament, we used the feedback we received from the previous tournament to our advantage. The second day we kept steady with the windy conditions and a little bit of rainfall. The morning of the third day there was a fog delay which cleared up quickly. We all knew with the scores so tightly bunched there was an opportunity to make a move up the leaderboard. We jumped four spots to tie for 7th place with a score of 865 (+1).
We are all so extraordinarily grateful to be competing and look forward to using this momentum that we have in our preparation for our next tournament, the Briar's Creek Invitational. Until next time, Illini Nation!
Go Fighting Illini!
