The Alabama women’s golf team will travel to Gainesville, Fla., this weekend to compete in the Gator Women’s Invitational. The Crimson Tide is looking to win its third straight team title during the invitational.
As the newly appointed national team of the week, No. 2 Alabama hopes the previous win at the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate will help it continue its success.
Head coach Mic Potter said the last tournament helped them persevere through rough patches. The Tide did not begin the tournament like normal but in the end won the competition by continuing to play as well and benefit from other teams’ mistakes.
“I was really proud of the girls because though they had a poor opening round score for the team, they were able to bounce back,” Potter said. “They played pretty well the last two days even though we were still behind. They stayed to the plan and the other teams made some mistakes and that enabled us to just win the tournament. I was proud of their perseverance and how they continued to battle but at the same time there are some things we need to work on and to improve in order to play to our standards.”
Though it only won the previous tournament by four shots, Alabama has been putting a lot of focus on putting. Once the Tide’s putting skills improve, Potter says the score will be better.
“The whole team needs to improve their putting,” Potter said. “If you putt well, it’s hard not to score well.”
The last time the Tide played in Gainesville, Fla., the team came in second place – losing by only one shot to Florida. Even with being named national team of the week, Potter said the focus is solely on improvement.
“We have to focus on the reality of how we’re playing and making sure we’re improving on things and being efficient,” Potter said.
While focusing on improvement, the expectations continue to rise. Though being No. 2 in the country doesn’t seem to faze the team, the Tide continues to expect improved accuracy.
“Our expectations are to always make every shot and keep the focus,” Potter said. “For every shot, we have to make a decision and make sure that it is a clear decision. We never really focus on winning or loosing, our focus is on the individual and how we can make each shot better than the last.”
The three-day invitational will tee off Friday. Alabama will be competing against schools from across the country including Mississippi State, North Carolina, Virginia and Florida State.
