Notre Dame wrapped up its trip at the Westbrook Spring Invitational in Arizona this weekend, shooting a four-under par 284 in the final round to finish sixth overall. Junior Emma Albrecht led the Irish in the final round with a two-under par 70 showing, placing her fourth in the individual standings. Albrecht’s three-round 207 score (70-67-70) in the tournament tied for the lowest 54-hole score in school history. The team’s cumulative score of 852 (288-280-852) was the second-lowest team 54-hole score in school history.
Irish head coach Susan Holt was pleased with her team’s performance.
“We played pretty well, shot 12-under — which is one of the better turnarounds we’ve had in the history of the program. That’s all good stuff. We had four different players shoot under-par rounds, which you always like to see — that there’s some balance in your lineup — not just always depending on one or two people that will always be the ones shooting low,” she said. “There’s a lot of positives to take, we did beat Illinois — they’re ranked 15th in the country — and we’re 2-0 against them head to head this year.”
Holt also acknowledged her team’s disadvantage with the weather, in that other schools already practice under similar conditions like those of the Arizona heat, while Notre Dame isn’t used to warm weather at this point of the year.
“Our stroke average for the year is like 3-over par every time we play. We shot even, did better than our average but, relative to the field we kind of dug ourselves a hole. The golf course — I think this is the fourth time we’ve been to [this course] — one of the reasons why we go is because we’re still coming out of the winter,” she said.
“We can’t really go outside and play a lot. [This Invitational’s course] is a course we can go out on and not have to have our games be super sharp at this point. But when you do that, it makes it an equalizer, you’re going to get some teams that are probably going to be able to matchup with you a little bit better than they normally would,” Holt added. “That’s probably what happened, a couple of teams beat us that shouldn’t [have]. That’s the risk you take in playing in an event like that.”
The team has had and is still set to face tough competition throughout the spring season, but Holt is confident that her team is still in the mix for a championship run.
“Every year we’ll try to contend for an ACC Championship and advance to the NCAA Championship. We’re on track right now and in a good position, we just got to finish this off. Right now, we’re just trying to get better every time we play, and we’ve had a really good season,” Holt said. “We’ve played six tournaments and four of our tournaments we’ve shot under par. Breaking a lot of records and doing a lot of good things. We have a very competitive schedule that makes it challenging, but we’re getting through it pretty good. We’re just excited for what the rest of the spring has and see how we can play through the rest of the schedule.”
The Irish play again during midterm break, hosting the Clover Cup in Mesa, Arizona. Holt and the team are excited to get back to the green and play their best golf.
“I’m excited for our next tournament — it’s over spring break, and it’s an event that we host out in Arizona. I think it’ll be our sixth year hosting out there so, the [players] are excited to get back out to some warm weather for a week,” Holt said.
