Joey Harris
Contributing Writer
Braving the elements, the College of Wooster women’s golf team took to their home course, the Wooster Country Club (WCC), for a high-swinging and low-scoring weekend at the Eva Shorb Weiskopf Invitational. The Scots finished first out of nine teams after two days of competition on April 2 and April 3, shooting a team score of 722.
Coming off an impressive fall in which Wooster placed in the top five at all but one of their tournaments, expectations were high. “It was the same teams, and we’ve been beating them all fall,” said Kayla Audette ’22. To prepare, Audette said Wooster spent more time at the WCC this week than they normally do with the hopes of securing their third first-place finish in a row at this tournament.
Still, the Scots did not put too much pressure on themselves, according to Ally Siewart ’25. Wooster placed second on Saturday by only three strokes. Despite not being where they wanted to be, Siewart said the team was confident in its ability to rebound. “Each of us had a goal in mind which was to do better the next day,” said Siewart. This mindset proved to be the right one when Wooster came out on top at the end of Sunday, beating out the University of Mount Union by 17 strokes, the team who had bested them the day before.
Contributions to the team’s strong showing came from a number of golfers over the weekend. Notably, Melissa Burtscher ’24 finished second overall in the tournament with a score of 167, shooting 85 in the first round and 82 in the second. This was her third time finishing a tournament in the top five this year. The performance earned Burtscher NCAC Athlete of the Week honors. Other well-performing Scots included Siewart, who finished in fourth place with a score of 175, Meghan Wright ’22, who finished in ninth place with a score of 187 and Audette, who tied for sixteenth with a score of 193.
Audette noted that a big part of the win came from the team’s consistency, a factor which she believes that the team has improved upon. The Scots relied on this consistency over the course of the two days, shooting 361 both days. Though this was not enough to come in first after day one, the final score showed just how much it mattered. “The other teams were either a lot higher the second day or everyone was a couple strokes higher, and we just were able to be a little bit lower the second day,” she said.
Another boost to the Scots’ ability to triumph this weekend may come from their increased attention to overall fitness in the offseason. While the team has engaged in both yoga and weightlifting in previous offseasons, Audette explained that they put an added emphasis on weightlifting this year and made sure to stick with it, which has paid off. Both mental and physical stamina have improved amongst the team members on the course according to Audette, allowing them to play at a higher level. “Everyone’s hitting it further and I feel like they’re having a better time cardio-wise with walking the course,” she said.
Looking forward, the Scots seek to carry the success of their first Spring tournament into the rest of the season. Wooster will tee off next at the John Carroll Invitational on April 9.
