Coming off a ninth-place finish at the University of Wisconsin Westbrook Spring Invitational at Westbrook Village Golf Club in Peoria, Arizona, the Irish will host the Clover Cup in Mesa, Arizona, over spring break.
Notre Dame is hosting the Clover Cup at Longbow Golf Club for the sixth consecutive year. Irish junior Alison Snakard is looking forward to hosting the event because it adds an element of control that other tournaments do not provide.
“It’s nice to be able to have something that is your own event and that you can invite teams to,” Snakard said. “That’s how golf works. You’ll be invited to one thing, so it’s nice to be able to invite people back and also represent your school at something that’s your own tournament.”
Irish sophomore Isabella DiLisio is excited for the tournament because she feels it will give her team a chance to prove itself, especially as it attempts to earn a place in the NCAA tournament in May.
“Personally, I’m excited for all the opportunities we have to beat some really good teams,” DiLisio said. “Right now, we’re trying to get into regionals and we’re kind of on the border-line, and at this point, we probably wouldn’t make it if they were deciding tomorrow. So, we have a lot of really solid opportunities. Florida State is coming and they’re ranked third. So, there are a lot of solid teams, that, if we can get a couple wins, it should help our ranking and hopefully we can put together a good season.”
Despite the team’s struggles in its last event, DiLisio was able to pull together a personal best two-round total of 138 at the Westbrook Spring Invitational, finishing with a 54-hole total of 211. She is looking forward to carrying that momentum into the Clover Cup.
“It was a good confidence booster in the last tournament,” DiLisio said. “That’s always helpful going into the next tournament knowing the last one you played in, you came in third, shot under par. So, that will definitely help for the upcoming tournament.”
Snakard, on the other hand, is looking forward to showing off the skills she has been focusing on improving over the course of the season in the Clover Cup.
“It’s been really great to have a lot of experience this year,” Snakard said. “I hope that finally putts can start dropping and the improvements start showing, so I can actually help the team in a positive way.”
Snakard noted that the season as a whole to this point has been an important learning experience for the team, as it has shown flashes of strong play over the course of events. She discussed the fact that the team knows it has improvements to make coming into the Clover Cup.
“We’ve learned that there’s a lot of talent out there and there are a lot of really good teams and having the cold weather is not an excuse,” Snakard said. “We need to keep working so that we can have some good wins.”
The Irish will look to find the consistency they desire when they take the course on March 17 in Mesa, Arizona, for the Clover Cup. The tournament is a three-day event, ending March 19.
