IU women’s golf struggled to keep scores low at the Hurricane Invitational on Monday and Tuesday in Miami.
Competing in a 12-school field, IU finished in 11th place with a score of 934, 70 over par. Scores were high all across the board, but the hard greens combined with 15 mph winds hurt the Hoosiers from the start. IU ended the first two rounds in last place by three strokes.
Despite the tough conditions, IU continued to fight. All five golfers improved their scores from round two to round three. Head coach Clint Wallman credits that mindset to the team wanting to change the direction of the season.
“They were not happy with how they played Monday and frankly with how the spring has started,” Wallman said. “There was a different mindset today, and we saw a better result because of it.”
Senior Mary Parsons topped the leaderboard for IU, posting a 13 over-par in 54 holes. After an average start to the spring season, Wallman said he was impressed with the veteran’s play.
“She gave herself a lot of opportunities by just making shot after shot,” Wallman said. “Plus, her score could’ve been even better if she holed some putts that she had good chances at.”
Parsons said her mindset was to address as many poor decisions as possible from the previous day.
“I was focused on where I could shave some shots off and went from there,” Parsons said.
Another bright spot for the Hoosiers was the return of sophomore Alexis Miestowski. She has not competed since Feb. 11 due to an injury, but finished with a team-best round of 72 on Tuesday.
Miestowski and Parsons joined senior Emma Fisher and freshmen Anni Eisenhut and Valerie Clancy to round out the starting five. Junior Priscilla Schmid, who has not competed since October due to an injury, was inactive once again.
IU has this weekend off before the team travels March 16 to Charleston, South Carolina, for the Briar’s Creek Invitational. Until then, Wallman said he wants the team to have as many repetitions as possible.
“We’re going to do a lot of scoring work, a lot on the short game,” Wallman said. “Just work on things that we can do in a short amount of time.”
