Coach Jan Dowling knows this fall season hasn’t been what her team expected.
The Gators have finished fifth, in a tie for tenth and 15th in their three weekend tournaments this fall. But Dowling and No. 21 UF hope to head into the spring season on a high note this weekend when they travel to Palo Alto, Calif., for the inaugural Pac-10/SEC Women’s Golf Challenge.
“On paper, it hasn't been the best fall in the world,” Dowling said. “But we've gained a lot of experience competing against the best teams in the country.”
By that logic, the Gators are sure to gain even more experience when the Pac-10/SEC Women’s Golf Challenge tees off today at 10:30 a.m. at the par-71, 6,103-yard Stanford Golf Course, as 12 of the nation’s top-25 teams will be competing.
All 12 Southeastern Conference schools will be represented in the inaugural event and each Pac-10 team, with the exception of Arizona State, will compete in the 21-team, three-day tournament which could decide the best women’s golf conference in the nation.
It will be the Gators’ first event in nearly a month, but Dowling said the long break will help her team this weekend, even though the Gators will be without the leadership of Jessica Yadloczky the team’s lone senior.
Yadloczky is participating in the LPGA Futures Tour qualifying school and in her place, Dowling said junior Marika Lendl will step up into the Gators’ rotation.
Since UF’s last tournament — the Tar Heel Invitational, which wrapped up on Oct. 10 — Dowling said the team has had ample time to focus on its short game, which she cited as one of the reasons the Gators haven’t performed as well this season.
The team took time during the four-week layoff to not only work on the short game, but to shoot rounds at various courses in Ocala to help the golfers practice different looks so they won’t get used to the same shots over and over.
“They've worked hard and it's got us mentally fresh,” Dowling said. “The only thing we have left to do is adapt to the cold northern California weather."
