Addressing the final green
Michaela Gleed, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of unsplash.com
Coming off their first event win at the Cherokee Valley Invitational this past week, North Greenville University Women’s golf team is preparing to finish the season stronger than they started. NGU women’s golf will tee up in the Conference Carolinas Championship at 9 a.m. on April 14 2018.
The Crusaders played a losing season during 2016-2017 season, placing in the lowest fourth of every invitational from the season and graduated one senior out of the program.
“The team has overcome a lot of adversity as a program in the last three years,” said Coach Robbie Edwards. “We put our differences aside, and [learned to] be a family on and off the course.”
North Greenville University’s women’s golf team aims to win both championships and people over for Christ while they compete. From Edwards, it is their point to shine the Light on and off the green.
With the addition of freshman, Allison Avery, a 2017-2018 season leader in points and transfer from Charleston Southern, Savannah Hallman, the team has “begun to realize that they are a good team and can hold their own with other competition in the region and conference,” said Edwards.
Junior golf athlete, Ashlynn Mullis, attributed their newfound success in the season to the fun, family environment on the team and she said, “The fact that we actually enjoy it as we compete helps.”
This roster has taken the team from placing last or next to last in every competition during the 2016-2017 season, to contending well on every green during the 2017-2018 season.
The women’s team began the season with the Converse Fall Invitational where they placed (4 out of 10). Then they competed in King Invitational (6 of 8), Pasty Rendleman Invitational (12 of 16), Converse Spring Invitational (6 of 9), Low Country Invitational (9 of 11), Coker women’s Invitational (7 of 9) and most recently the Cherokee Valley Invitational (1 of 10).
As the team continues training, two weeks out from the Conference Carolinas Championship, they broke the top 100 nationally ranked teams at 96. This is a 45-rank jump from where they were ranked last season.
While the team outcomes have been inconsistent during the 2017-2018 season, Edwards said it is their dedication and hard work that has allowed them to get better as the season has continued.
Coach Edwards is confident in his team’s potential and said, “we have some good programs in the Conference Carolinas, but never count us out.” Only two weeks away from the Conference Carolinas Championship invitational, the team is training to play a competitive match.
