The Alabama women’s golf team will travel to Tempe, Ariz., this weekend to compete in the PING/Arizona State University Invitational. This will be the last tournament in which the Crimson Tide will compete before the SEC championships.
The PING/ASU Invitational marks the fifth tournament of the spring season for the Tide. Coach Mic Potter said he was looking forward to this tournament because it will be a competitive tournament against many west coast schools.
“It’s always a competitive event,” Potter said. “[ASU] has a really good golf course. They are sort of the mainstays of college golf for women’s tournaments, so we are looking forward to going out there and playing against a competitive field.”
Over the past weeks, Alabama has been racking up lengthy practice time on the course. Potter said the longer, tougher practices have been paying off during tournaments.
“We’re trying to get more into the competitive mode and out of the technical mode,” Potter said. “We’ve won three out of four of the tournaments so far. The fact that we have challenged ourselves more during our practices has greatly affected our successes.”
Junior Hannah Collier said she is excited to play west coast schools in order to get a feel for what other teams offer.
“[Playing out of conference] helps us become a better team by seeing what is out there besides what is in our conference,” Collier said. “We play a lot of out-of-conference teams in other tournaments, but it’s good to see where we stand and see what we need to work on after every tournament.”
Both Potter and Collier said they have been looking forward to this invitational all spring since it is in a temperate location. Potter hopes the outcome of the invitation will be positive since he knows the team hates being in the cold and rain.
“Our expectations are always the same,” Potter said. “They never relate to other teams, only to us and our performances relative to what we have been practicing and what our standards are. It is that time of year when the SEC championships, regionals, and nationals are coming up, so our level of play needs to get closer to that standard.”
Alabama will compete in the PING/ASU Invitational this weekend before preparing for the SEC championships next weekend.
