Gearing up for a new week of tournaments, the BYU women's golf team head to Washington State to compete in the Cougar Cup.
After a rough beginning to their season last week, the women's golf team has their spirits high and are ready to play their best on Monday.
'Today you could kind of just tell the attitude that the girls had, they came (to practice) and shared their positive experiences from what they had last week with the girls that didn't travel,' assistant coach Juli Erekson said. 'Reuniting our team again I think just uplifted everybody, so they are really excited to go do better next week. We're excited to play and to have another opportunity because we played really well our first round and so we want to go back out there; we know we can do it.'
The girls have been constructing ideas about how to improve their game for Washington.
'We've been practicing a lot with sticking to a game plan,' senior Amanda Keith said. 'Making sure that our emotions are in check and that everything that we've worked for will stay in touch. We're working on going out there and having a solid game plan and not letting anything else get in our way.'
There has been a lot of talk from both the girls and coaches about the need to strengthen confidences as well.
'I know when coach Roberts and myself played, confidence came through preparation and so that's kind of where we hit practice really hard,' Erekson said. 'We have drills, we have competitions, all things that simulate a competitive golf round; by doing those things that's what builds confidence.'
It's more than just drills and simulations for freshman Lea Garner.
'I think in golf you have to have a good attitude,' Garner said. 'That's probably my biggest thing is trying to stay positive and have good self talk. A lot this season we've been talking about that and how we need to just be positive and visualize all our shots.'
Kieth said the Cougars have a team goal to average 306 or better each round and to make it to Regionals this year. There to help them achieve that goal is sports psychologist Craig Manning.
'We've been working with Craig Manning, our sports psychologist, just on studying proper objectives,' Erekson said. 'When you achieve those that builds confidence in itself; just like setting any minimal goal, whether it's on the golf course or not, that will build confidence physically and mentally.'
The Cougars will play on the Washington State course beginning Monday morning and finishing Tuesday afternoon.