Oehrlein speaks to the media about the Lady Northern
September 21, 2009 | Women's Golf
Badger women's golf coach Todd Oehrlein spoke with the media today at the Monday news conference regarding this weekend's Lady Northern Golf Invitational Sept. 27-28 at University Ridge Golf Course in Madison.
Click here to hear a video of Oehrlein's comments today. A transcript of the news conference follows.
TODD OEHRLEIN: The Lady Northern is always a preview of the Big Ten Championship. And so each year that site obviously rotates along with the host institution, whoever has the championship. So this upcoming weekend, we are fortunate to have that tournament at our place this year. We have all 11 teams from the Big Ten that are going to be here, so the field will be very strong. And it's always exciting to see all your conference schools at your place. We have four additional teams also coming to the field, so it rounds out a 15-team field and, you know, we're looking for great competition.
The team is off to a strong start. We have one tournament under our belt. We've played at the Cougar Classic in Charleston, South Carolina, on the 13th and 14th, and we finished 6th out of 18 teams there. We played solid though. We had some very consistent scores, had some very strong wins against traditionally strong golf programs and programs that I expect to be certainly in the national rankings and national consideration in the future throughout the year. So you know, it's a good start, but that's over, and now we're on to the next event. So that's where we're at this moment.
QUESTION #1: Getting a chance to host this, obviously the Big Tens are coming here in the spring. I would think your players are going to get a kick out of this, wouldn 't they, and considering how the course has improved, the length of the course and the whole bit, it makes for what could be a really good tournament.
OEHRLEIN: Yeah, I think it sets up for a great championship, both the Northern and the Big Tens. You know, you always worry a little bit about the weather in the spring, but, you know, the Northern, the golf course is in wonderful shape right now. It's in really peak condition, and the golf course staff, they do a great job trying to build toward it. It's certainly one of their highlights throughout the year.
The players are excited. They look forward to that, that opportunity to be here. You know, we've had it on our calendar for a few years and knew it was coming up, and so, yeah, there's excitement and a lot of anticipation and, you know, so we 're looking forward to having all the teams on campus.
QUESTION #2: For the fans that would come out, obviously you'd like them to follow your club, but teams or individuals from the Big Ten schools that we might want to keep on eye on'
OEHRLEIN: Well, the team that traditionally has been (the one to look to), in the last couple years, Purdue has had a very strong program. They graduated their No. 1 player, who was the individual national champion last year, Maria Hernandez. So she's graduated, but there's a lot of depth in our conference. It's a great golf league. And so people that are interested, you'd see some tremendous golf throughout the course of the weekend. You know, Sunday is 36 holes continuous play, tee times, shotgun start that starts at 8:30, and we will be out there on the golf course basically until dark. So people can come on out at their convenience and certainly see a lot of really great play.
QUESTION #3: This is strictly off potential, but potentially, could this, your team right now, be the best that you've had, when you look up and down the line '
OEHRLEIN: Well, I think we have the potential to be as balanced as we've ever been, and that certainly translates into, yeah, potentially to be the best team. There 's a lot of golf ahead of us still, obviously, and I understand the question. But there's a nice mix. This coming weekend we're going to (in the lineup) have two seniors, a junior, and a sophomore, both who have a lot of experience, and then two true freshmen. Lindsay Danielson qualified as the 6th player for this coming weekend. So there 's a real nice mix.
Early in the season, I really like the chemistry. They're together, they 're pushing each other, but they're encouraging each other as well. And so, you know, I think that balance is important in our sport. You end up playing tournaments, and often this has been a problem that's held us back a little bit in the past, where maybe we've had two or three really solid scorers, and we just couldn't get that fourth score on the board. We'd have two players that maybe struggled on a given day. And so far in practices, we've had more consistency, more depth. The first tournament would support that. You know, we saw that in the first event.
I would expect to see that this weekend, see some solid scores and see some consistency, just the comfort level of being on your home golf course. So it sets up for a nice start. We still have to go out and perform though.
Players Mentioned
