ND Women’s Golf
Irish struggle to find team success despite individual achievement
Jack Concannon | Friday, May 17, 2019
It was a challenging season for the Irish. They finished no higher than fifth as a team in any tournament, despite getting impressive individual performances from different players in each match. Irish head coach Susan Holt said the team struggled to find consistency.
“We didn’t play as well as we were capable of,” Holt said. “Obviously, it’s disappointing. We had a lot of talent on our team and we just could not get it all together. We got a lot of good individual standout performances, really in every tournament. We just could not get the four scores that we needed to back up those good scores.”
Ann Curtis | The Observer The individual performances Holt praised came from across the Irish roster. Senior Emma Albrecht, sophomore Abby Heck and senior Isabella DiLisio all posted top 10 individual finishes during the season, but were unable to consistently finish in the top half of all competitions to give their team an opportunity for high finishes. Holt said she is considering all options to get better results next season.
“We need to play better,” she said. “That’s the bottom line, we have the talent. We need to re-evaluate some things about how we practice. Try to be better prepared for the future and try to be more competitive in practice so that we are more competitive in tournaments. We’re going to try to mix it up a little bit and see if we can get a little more creative and hopefully get some better results.”
While the team did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament, Emma Albrecht was able to qualify for regionals in East Lansing as an individual. The all-time Notre Dame leader in scoring average finished at 13 over par in a tie for 56th after the three-day tournament to end her collegiate career. Holt had high praise for the graduating senior.
“She’s had a great career. She was the leader of our program,” she said. “ … You have to be an avid golfer to appreciate the four-year consistency that she showed. I have been at this for 29 years, and I have not really seen anything like it. The level of play in our game is so deep and competitive it’s impressive to what she was able to do.”
