Confidence and playing at a familiar course can be a scary combination in golf.
The Texas Tech women's golf team, coming off a second place finish in its last tournament, begins the McHaney/Morehead Invitational today, its only regular season home golf tournament of the year.
Tech coach Stacey Totman said playing in the friendly confines of the Jerry S. Rawls Golf Course will prove to be a big advantage.
"Our golf course is unlike any other golf course that you play in college," she said. "It's more of a length-style. You definitely have to work your angles a lot better, and you really need to think your way around. We know what we are trying to do; we know how to play the golf course."
Not only will the Red Raiders be at an advantage because they know the course, the teams they will face will have to take time to adjust to playing the tough course.
"For the teams that haven't played here before it takes more than just one round to kind of learn the golf course," Tech's Ulrika Van Niekerk said . "Our golf course is a very hard golf course to learn by just playing one time. It's more of an advantage for us. That makes the pressure less."
Van Niekerk was Tech's top performer at the Heather Farr/CU Invitational in Boulder, Colo., where her 4-under (212) performance was good for sixth overall.
Van Niekerk was joined in the Top 10 by fellow senior Megan Dowdy, who shot a 68 on the last day to put her in the eighth position. Dowdy finished with a three-round score of 215.
Dowdy said the tournament in Boulder gave the Lady Raiders a lot of confidence and confirmed a lot of things about the makeup of the team.
"There was a lot of really good, strong teams at that last tournament," she said, "and it just showed that we can hang with anybody and we are just as good as anybody else. If we make up our mind to play well, we will definitely do it."
Although the Big 12 Conference Championships will be held in Lubbock in the spring, Dowdy said this tournament has extra significance: The senior will be playing her last regular season tournament at the Rawls course.
"It's sad," she said, "but everybody goes through it. It's exciting."
Dowdy said with the way the team performed in its last tournament coupled with all the advantages of playing at home, she predicts good things from the Lady Raiders.
"I really think we are gonna play good," she said. "I think we are gonna win. We're gonna give everybody a run for their money, that's for sure."
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