This weekend, the Idaho women’s golf team will be in Mesa, Ariz., competing in the 24th annual WAC Championships. The team is looking to win its first conference title since 2007.
Winning the conference tournament earns more than just a trophy, it also comes with an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament, which Idaho hasn’t been to since 2010.
“Our goal is to win,” said coach Lisa Johnson, who is trying to win her first conference title at Idaho. “We’re one of the best teams in the WAC. The team is well aware of our position heading into the conference tournament, and our goal all year has been to win it.”
The WAC Championships will be held at the Longbow Golf Club. Longbow is a desert golf course equipped with fast and firm greens, which Johnson said the team has seen a lot of this season and should be ready for.
Johnson said this is the team’s fifth consecutive year playing at Longbow. The only other schools in the WAC that have played the course are New Mexico State and Seattle U.
“We’ve scored well on the course in the past,” Johnson said. “I don’t see any reason why this golf course doesn’t set up well for our team.”
Of the five players competing, Johnson said freshman Amy Hasenohrl is the only player who has yet to play at Longbow.
With senior Rachel Choi failing to make the cut, no seniors will be competing. Joining Hasenohrl will be junior Leilanie Kim, sophomore Cassie McKinley, junior Kaitlyn Oster and sophomore Kristin Strankman.
“The top of the lineup was solid, and knew they were going,” Johnson said. “The bottom of the lineup was competing for the last two spots, which Cassie and Amy won … Statistically it’s our best team … These five players have the best five scoring averages on the team.”
Idaho enters the championship the highest nationally ranked team in the conference, coming in at 105th on golfstat.com. New Mexico State sits closest to Idaho, ranked at No. 114.
Not only is Idaho the highest ranked team in the championship, it also has the highest ranked player. Ranked No. 371 in the country, Kim is the top player competing in the tournament.
Even coming in as the highest ranked team in the WAC, Idaho failed to earn a top five finish this spring. The best finish for Idaho came at the Gold Rush Invitational and at the University of California-Irvine Invitational, finishing ninth.
Johnson said in the two weeks prior to the conference championship, the team has changed the way they’ve been practicing. Instead of working on their game with practice and drills, the Vandals have been playing more rounds of golf.
“We haven’t achieved at the level we’re capable of yet,” Johnson said. “We’ve had many conversations regarding that … and changed the way we’ve practiced leading into the conference tournament. We are hopeful that all of are hard work will pay off.”
Idaho is the only current member of the WAC to have won a conference championship, but will be joining the Big Sky Conference next season.
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]