Welcome to the Concordia women’s golf blog from Rapid City, South Dakota! Throughout the week, we will be posting logs written by members of the as they compete for a national championship.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Since we were in the last groups that went off today, we were able to sleep in and take our time getting ready this morning. We did our normal practice routine and invited Pat Sweeney into our “Circle of Love,” our pep talk and prayer circle.
The weather was hot, humid, and very windy. We performed about the same as yesterday putting us in 7th place with 9 shots out of 4th. Our goal is to finish in the top 5 so a good day tomorrow can help us accomplish our goal. Plus, Friday is tie dye day! Before the tournament we tie dyed shorts for us to wear and t-shirts for all of our parents. We have been waiting all week to wear them, we even tie dyed shirts for our coaches. We tee off late in the afternoon again so we will have plenty of time to get ready and wear our tie dye outfits!
Concordia Golf Team
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Today was the second round of the tournament. It started with a 6 a.m. wake up call and ended with a trip to Mount Rushmore. The weather was nice today, a bit breezy at times but since we played in the morning, it wasn’t too bad. We played a little bit better today, improving by one shot. We are looking forward for tomorrow where we will all play well together on the same day. Pat Sweeny, our Assistant Athletic Director, surprised us by coming and watching us play today. He had just flown from Alabama with the softball team the night before. We were very excited that he came and supported us today.
After our round today we went up to Mount Rushmore. It is about a 30-minute drive from Rapid City. We had tons of fun taking pictures and seeing the sights again. It really is remarkable that people carved giant faces into a huge stone cliff.
Tomorrow we are looking forward to playing our third round and going out to dinner with all of our parents. All of us have at least one parent here to support us, which is so exciting. We would not be here if it weren’t for them. We also have a special surprise for them as well.
Concordia Golf Team
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Today was the first round of the National Tournament. Our first tee time wasn’t until 1 p.m. so we got to sleep in and take our time getting ready. The weather was 100% better today. It was sunny and gorgeous. The front nine was a bit breezy but the wind totally calmed down for the back nine.
We all struggled a bit today, but we are confident and looking forward for a little redemption tomorrow. As a team we shot 320, not our best but the way we figure it, we have three more days to improve.
After our round we went to dinner at the Firehouse (a very good restaurant in Rapid City) and then to Cold Stone. Now we just have to rest up for tomorrow’s early round. We tee off at 8:50, which means a 6:00 a.m. wake up call. We are also going to Mount Rushmore tomorrow for some more fun and photo ops.
Concordia Golf Team
The Concordia women's golf team along with their friends from the University of Victoria.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Today started early with a 9 a.m. shotgun practice round. Unfortunately, the weather did not hold up for us. After 13 holes, the course sounded the horn and we had to come in for severe weather. Eventually there was a tornado and severe thunderstorm warning. Hopefully the course is not completely flooded out for tomorrow’s round.
The NAIA National Tournament Opening Ceremonies Banquet was held this evening in the Dakota Ballroom. Dinner and dessert were excellent and we were fortunate enough to sit with the Manager of Championship Sports for the NAIA, Kristen Gillette. Our guest speaker for the evening was a two-time Winter Olympian, Jana Lindsey who has competed for the U.S. Ski Team for ten years. She is a native of South Dakota and spoke to us of her experience as an Olympic athlete, of having strong support, setting goals, and believing in yourself. It was a very inspirational speech and it is awesome that we get to hear from successful athletes such as herself.
This evening we are going to try and outdo our “Concordia Gladiators” video from last night and do a leap-frog around the hotel. We are looking forward to the first round of the tournament. The weather is supposed be nice for the rest of the week and we are going to come back with killer golf tan lines.
Concordia Golf Team
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Yesterday started with a 6:30 a.m. flight to Denver and then a short and scary prop plane ride over to Rapid City. We arrived around one in the afternoon, went to the hotel and then headed to the golf course for lunch and a short practice session. We had plans to take a short nap and then go to dinner, but the nap lasted a little longer than expected...Twelve hours to be exact. I guess the early wakeup call put everyone into a coma!
Who starts cleaning the carpets at 7 a.m.? Apparently the staff at the Holiday Inn at Rapid City on Sunday morning. Good thing we had already gotten our 12 hours of sleep!
After breakfast we headed to the course for our first practice round. It was 73 degrees and a little windy – a perfect day for golf. We started making our game plan for this year’s National Tournament. The tournament’s official practice round is tomorrow at 9 a.m. and we are looking forward to finalizing our game plans and getting into the right mindset to compete for the next four days.
We also made our own episode of "American Gladiators" called "Concordia Gladiators." We even filmed it and made an awesome video. Now we have to get a good night's sleep to get ready for our practice round and banquet tomorrow.
Tonight’s activities: Cold Stone and sword fighting in the hallways of the hotel.
Kim Lindow