This weekend the Irish headed to the Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona, to compete in the Clover Cup. The Irish were hosting the tournament, and put together a solid weekend as hosts. The team finished sixth in the 15-team field, with senior Isabella DiLisio leading the way for the Irish. She shot a 5-over 221, good for a tie for seventh. Despite the team’s solid performance, Irish head coach Susan Holt said she believes the team needs to be more consistent.
“We had some good individual performances and good individual rounds. There were a lot of positives there, but we need four scores every day and we’re not getting it,” Holt explained. “We’re going to have to keep working to try and get those four solid scores.”
The team’s lack of consistency has been its undoing so far. Sophomore Abby Heck finished second individually in the team’s first event of the season, but has struggled to maintain that same level across the season tournaments since. Senior Emma Albrecht has been an excellent player for the Irish throughout her career, but has only led the Irish in one of the three tournaments so far. Holt said she believes this lack of constant play is limiting the Irish in tournaments.
“The first three tournaments Abby played great. Our first event she finished second individually, and then Emma had an event where she finished second individually and then Isabella just had a top-10 finish,” she said. “We have had different people playing well which is great but we need everybody to show up for three-straight days. If we can do it we are going to be able to compete and we can matchup with anybody in the country. We just have to do it.”
While the team has had a difficult time finding consistency across tournaments, DiLisio was extremely consistent all weekend despite playing through an injury. After sustaining a back injury in practice, the team was unsure she would be able to play, but she persevered through the pain and posted rounds of 75, 73 and 73, including a final round that included five birdies.
Holt said she was impressed by DiLisio’s gritty play.
“We were warming up on Monday and she pulled a muscle in her upper back. She did not hit a golf ball again until we were warming up Friday morning the day of the tournament. We had a trainer out there doing a lot of work on her, and it got her to where she could battle,” Holt said. “She was in a lot of pain, but I think she was happy to be able to try to play. She wasn’t swinging at 100 percent, she at about 80 percent of her full strength. She was effective in her three rounds. The team needed her and she knew it, and she got it done.”
The team will now focus on the Brickyard Collegiate tournament on April 8 and 9. It is the team’s final chance to play before the ACC Championship on April 18, so it will be critical for the team to work out any remaining issues and get healthy.
Holt said she hopes to see her team continue improving before its next tournament.
“We need to continue to work on our games. Golf is a sport where everybody has their own things that they need to work on and all of our kids have different areas of their games they need to focus on,” Holt said. “It goes back to the reality of us needing four scores every day. We’re not getting that enough. It’s on them to be ready to compete once the tournament starts and get three rounds in. We’re just looking for that consistency. If we can get that then we’ll be in really good shape.”
