Women’s golf team readies itself to travel east for Furman Invitational
By Chad Murray
Skiff Staff

The women’s golf team swings into action today in its third tournament of the year, the Furman Lady Paladin Invitational in Greenville, S.C.

Head coach Angie Ravaioli-Larkin said she is looking for a good performance from the squad.

“We really haven’t played like we think we can play,” Ravaioli-Larkin said. “We’re looking to put it all together (at this tournament).”

In the first tournament of the season, the University of New Mexico Dick McGuire Invitational in late September, the team finished eighth out of 19 teams.

Earlier this month, the team competed in the Price’s “Give ‘em” Five-New Mexico State University Invitational and again finished eighth out of 20 teams.

The team is anchored by junior Brooke Tull, who leads the team in scoring average with a 73.6 a round average and recorded the best finish of her collegiate career at the NMSU Invitational, finishing second place overall. Shannon Barr, the only senior on the squad, has placed in the top 50 in both tournaments this year and sophomore D’Rae Ward jumped from a tie for 62nd place in the Dick McGuire Invitational to a tie for 45th place in the NMSU Invitational.

The Furman Invitational marks the first tournament in which the women’s golf team has headed east to compete this season. It also marks the first time that the squad will face some of its Conference USA foes, which the team last saw in April during the C-USA tournament, where the team took first place.

“There are lots of Conference USA teams here, and that should give us motivation to do well,” Tull said.

The fall visit to South Carolina has become a mainstay for the team in recent years, with seventh and eighth place finishes in 2001 and 2000, respectively.

And to experienced team members like Tull, the course offers few surprises.

“It’s very straightforward and it’s not very long,” Tull said. “Putting and short games will be the key.”

Ravaioli-Larkin sees the players’ destiny this weekend resting in their own hands.

“We have the talent and the players, and it all comes down to believing in ourselves,” Ravaioli-Larkin said. “There is so much parity and equality in women’s golf that it’s only a matter of getting out top five (golfers) together for three days and hope they do well.”

After the tournament in South Carolina, the team will head to Alabama for the Auburn Invitational, to be held Friday to Nov. 3. Then the women’s golf team returns home and will not take part in another tournament until February. Ravaioli-Larkin feels that it is important for the team to place well in these two tournaments before the roughly three-month break.

“Really strong finishes make for a very happy off-season and build momentum for the spring,” Ravaioli-Larkin said.