This past weekend 14 women’s golf teams traveled across the Midwest to compete in Peoria for the Grand Prairie Classic golf tournament.
“It was a tough weekend to play, the first day was only about 55,” freshman Keegan Ryan said.
The three-day tournament was shortened to only two days because of bad weather.
But the weather wasn’t the only problem the team faced on the first day, coach Bo Ryan said.
“We had a late start and had to battle off the clutch of dark,” he said.
Overall, Bradley finished third after the first day, nine strokes behind the first place Missouri State. The poor weather continued for the second day as the forecast expected rain for most of the day.
“[The second day] we caught a break, we thought it was going to rain,” coach Ryan said.
The second day started on time with no rain all day, but the weather was still cold.
At the end of the second day, the tournament was called because of expected snow. This left the Braves in fourth place, only one shot away from tying for third.
Coach Ryan said freshman Kelly Amundrud and senior Bari Erais played great this past weekend. Both Amundrud and Erais finished only four shots away from the lead at 153.
The final top-four teams from the tournament were Drake in first, followed by Missouri State, Indiana State and Bradley.
“We are disappointed in what we did, it was protecting our grounds,” coach Ryan said.
He said overall, the team just didn’t catch a break all weekend, which lead to a poor mindset.
“It was more a mindset than playing bad, we just needed a spark,” he said. “We are playing OK golf, just not great golf.”
Although women’s golf had a tough break this past weekend, the players said they are looking forward to their conference meet coming up Thursday in Panora, Iowa. The rest of the team’s season is based on how they do at this tournament.
But Erais said she believes by the time they arrive they will be well prepared.
“We played the conference grounds in the fall and won the preview, so we should be pretty ready,” she said.
The weather is expected to be nice, around 60 degrees.
