The Grinnell women’s golf team members are swinging their goals into action as they prepare for the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) tournament.
The SLIAC tournament will be taking place at Metamora Fields in Illinois. Saya Geisendorfer `27, who’s been on the field before, said that going back will be reminiscent for her.
“I played that course when I was in highschool so it’s pretty fun to go back and experience playing 18 holes there,” said Geisendorfer. She said that she previously did not play well for one of the holes, but hopes she changes that at the tournament.
“We always play very well in conference, so we’re looking to beat other teams by large margins,” said Geisendorfer. “Not to boast or anything, but I think we’re very competitive.”
The SLIAC is a three day tournament that will take place Oct. 6 through Oct. 8. Since this is one of the tournaments that all members on the women’s golf team can attend, the athletes are excited to be there with the team.
“It’s always a fun event to play, especially because all of us get to go for that, so it’s nice to be able to play with everyone,” said Vidushi Keni `26. “Most tournaments are two days, so you have an extra day out there with your teammates.”
The team practices 10 hours a week, working to improve all aspects of the game. Their coach, Conner McKay, looks at their statistics to prepare different practice plans tailored to each player.
“This could vary from doing the chipping ladder, to working on distances between 20 and 70 yards or playing more on the course and trying to work on course management,” Keni said, referring to practices to improve golf performance.
Kayva Keshav `26 added, “We all have different strengths and weaknesses and different things in our game that we should focus on. Individualized practices and team practices where we do competitive games against each other improves our performance under stress.”
Since getting first place for their first two games, the women’s golf season has been off to a great start. Keni attributes this to her focused teammates and her coach’s practices.
“The team’s been playing really well,” she said. “Everyone’s been scoring pretty low, and we all have a pretty tight scoring dispersion. It’s definitely been thanks to our coach that’s been conducting good practices, and everyone being really focused and doing their best.”
The team’s goal is to win the SLIAC conference and get their bid to nationals. Last year was their first time going to nationals in Ohio, and they are motivated to work towards a repeat of events.
“It’s become a tradition at this point to win conference,” said Keni. “So to be able to perform well at Nationals is like my year long goal — to finish in the top five of nationals.” Keni added that having all nine top spots taken by the team at conference is another goal to ensure an automatic bid if they won conference.
“I think we’re very capable of doing that,” said Keshav, agreeing with Keni.
