Coach Oehrlein Talks to Media About Upcoming Big Ten Championship
April 25, 2006 | Women's Golf
The women's golf program will also compete in the Big Ten Women's Golf Championship this weekend at Indiana. Coach Todd Oehrlein provided the media a recap of the season and answered quesions at the regular Monday news conference.
TODD OEHRLEIN: As Justin mentioned, we have our Big Tens coming up this weekend. We've played pretty well as of late. Our last two events have actually been our top two finishes or our top two low rounds for the tournament for this year.
So I like the way we're progressing and have steadily shown improvement as the season's moved along. And that's ultimately what you want. You want to be playing your best golf at the end of the season. Admittedly though, we still have a ways to go to be able to compete for a Big Ten championship. That's just kind of where we're at and what we're trying to move forward and work towards.
We've been led really this entire year in our events by two players. Jeana Dahl and Katie Elliott have been our top finishers this whole season. Jeana led in all but one invitational in the fall. Katie's kind of taken over in the spring, has been our top finisher in each event this spring. Both have played well. Both are young. Katie 's a sophomore. Jeana's a true freshman.
We've also got some nice contribution, especially as of late, from a couple of seniors, Lindsay McMillan and Jackie Obermueller have played very well and need to continue to do so here heading into this weekend. We just came off our last invitational yesterday at Ohio State. (We) played very well on Saturday, the first day. Had our low 36-hole total of the season.
Lindsay had a hole in one on the eighth hole in the second round, so that was kind of neat, her first hole in one of her life. So she was excited about that. Unfortunately, we didn't play quite as well on Sunday. And really what was kind of disappointing about it was we really gave the round away kind of right down the stretch.
And that was what is disappointing as anything, because it's been a focus of ours all year and in particular in the spring after we, a few invitationals in the fall, we kind of had a similar pattern, where we kind of were in pretty decent position, and then the last couple of holes, made a couple of doubles and gave some shots away that maybe were a little careless and we probably shouldn't have given away and took ourselves out of a couple of positions.
So that was a little disappointing on Sunday, but still, the last few tournaments, as I've mentioned, just they've been our top two finishing so far this year. And scores have actually been pretty solid. So we need to keep moving and looking forward to Big Tens this weekend at Indiana.
We'll leave Wednesday. We'll take the same lineup that we took this last weekend, plus you travel a sixth player to Big Tens, and so we 'll take Isabel Alvarez, who is a true freshman as well. We are really looking forward to Indiana's golf course. It's tight, very severe greens. It's going to be a key point to the whole weekend, is just how we manage the greens and keeping the ball in play off the tee.
The favorite going into the tournament is clearly going to be Purdue. They're ranked top 5 in the nation, pretty much the whole year, and they 're very strong. A couple other teams that are, if they play very well, they can hang with them certainly and give them a nice run, create some competition, but Purdue will be the favorite going into this weekend.
QUESTION #1: Coach, I'll ask you the same question I asked Greg. What would you be satisfied with coming out of this tournament' What would you like to see happen this weekend'
OEHRLEIN: Well, I mentioned that we've shown improvement throughout, and that's going to be an important part. I need us to continue to improve. We need to keep making progress. If we play well and eliminate some of the mistakes and eliminate some of the bigger numbers on just a couple of holes, you know, some of the doubles that we make out there, I think a top-half finish would be outstanding for us.
You know, you never want to, you don't want to ever hold anybody back. I mean, you're always going to compete and you're always trying to win golf tournaments. But you also have to be realistic and make sure that you 're doing the very best that you can do and continue to make strides. We do have a mix.
We have some very young players, but as I mentioned, we also have a couple of seniors and a junior playing. So our lineup is not entirely young. We have been led in scoring by young players, but we do have a nice mix and I hope that balance of youth and excitement and some leadership and some experience hopefully will carry over as well and help us down the, you know, this next weekend going into the tournament.
So, as a whole though, anything under 310 as a score for us is pretty solid. We want to keep moving in that direction. We've been able to get to those low numbers. This last weekend, we shot 299. We need to try to get under 300 a little more consistently. To compete and to win, the winning scores will be in the low 290's at Indiana.
QUESTION #2: You touched on Lindsay's hole in one a little bit earlier. Could you just talk about what kind of momentum that gives her in her senior season heading into the Big Tens'
OEHRLEIN: Yeah. She was unbelievably excited. Well, so was I. We all were. I mean, it was great. It's actually the second one we've had. Nicki Morse had one two years ago as well. She was incredibly excited. She was funny when she saw it go in the hole. The crowd that was up by the hole kind of started, you know, reacted obviously and she dropped the club down and put her hands over her face and was just in shock.
And to her credit, the ultimate test is what do you do on the next hole, because she was, I mean, she was shaking. She was nervous. I mean, you're just so excited. And, you know, she parred out actually and played really well, put it to the next hole and actually had about a 15-footer for birdie and it just lipped out, so unfortunately didn't get it.
But, you know, that type of finish, that type of excitement is what you hope for out of your seniors going through. And Jackie played well also. Jackie unfortunately, had just a couple of double bogeys in both rounds on Saturday and shot a pair of 75's, a couple of double bogeys on the last hole both rounds. But she was excited, took some momentum from that. Lindsay played solid all day, did the same thing.
That momentum hopefully will carry them over. And that's what, you'd like to see that out of their senior season when they finish, just go, do the best that they can, maximize their senior year, and just perform to the best of their ability and do as much as they can. If they do that, a lot of times you're looking for leadership out of your seniors as well. They maximize what they're capable of, they'll provide all kinds of leadership and direction for us. And it 's going to be important that they do that.
