While most spend their time worrying about the snow and cold in January, the BYU golf teams are actively preparing for their fast-approaching spring season.
Women’s Team
The women’s golf team won three of their four tournaments and lost to just three teams during their fall season. The Cougars are hoping to build on that success this spring.
“Last season was excellent,” said women’s head coach Carrie Roberts. “We just played really really well every tournament, so we obviously feel really good about where we are. It was the most successful semester in (BYU) women’s golf history, and that says a lot about the girls and the work ethics, attitudes, drive and passion they have. We are very happy with our fall season.”
Many hours of preparation are required to perform at the level these athletes do. When weather does not allow the team to practice in Provo, they travel about four hours to St. George on Fridays and Saturdays. Each player on the team has a plan to improve, and each works to execute it to the best of their abilities.
“Each person is a little different,” Roberts said. “They are in a different stage of their game and their swing, so with everyone it’s a little different. Some of them are working on their swings, some of them are working on their putting, some are working on their mental game, some of them are working on wedges. We basically analyze their game and see what they need to get ready, so each girl is a little bit different in what we work on.”
This Cougar team is expecting contributions from players of all experience levels. Junior Alexandria White had second and fourth place finishes during fall play, while freshman Rose Huang also contributed with fifth, fourth, and first place finishes. The team didn’t mince words when asked about this year’s goals.
“We want to compete at nationals,” Roberts said. “That’s the ultimate goal. But really we want to take it one tournament at a time and improve and perform our best at each event. We want to learn from each event and get better for the next tournament.”
Fans can support the BYU women’s golf team by following and commenting on their Instagram and Twitter accounts, byuwgolf and @byuwgolf respectively.
Men’s Team
The BYU men’s golf team hopes to improve on a fall season in which they struggled to compete at the level they wanted, finishing in ninth, 11th (three times), and 14th place in their fall meets.
“We are looking to improve on a fall season that didn’t go too well for us,” said men’s head coach Bruce Brockbank. “I knew our scores would be a little off with our young team, but I never dreamed they would be where they were this fall.”
The Cougars are a very young team. They have just one senior on the roster and seven underclassmen. While their youth brings some challenges, Brockbank believes they can still perform well.
“All of these guys have played in plenty of tournaments,” Brockbank said. “They may lack some experience in knowing the courses we play on, but they know how to play well.”
Looking forward to the spring, the team hopes to fuel each other’s play. Each player prepares separately with their individual plan based on the areas they need to improve, but all their efforts affect the ultimate outcome.
“Golf is an individual sport, but we’re playing it as a team,” Brockbank said. “Hopefully we can get some momentum built up this spring. If we can get some players to step up and shoot some quality scores we may find ourselves having some success.”
Brockbank said fans can get involved and support the players by coming to watch them play at the Riverside Country Club in Provo on April 11–12.
