NCAA trip on minds of Arkansas women

BY ROB KEYS

Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008

URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/225098/

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas women’s golf coach Shauna Estes-Taylor knows the rest of the NCAA West Regional field because she looked at it when it was announced.

Since then, Estes-Taylor has been busy thinking about her own team, the ninth-ranked Lady Razorbacks.

“We don’t talk about the other teams at all,” Estes-Taylor said. “If we take care of our business, I think we’ll be fine.... I think we have a great opportunity to win as well as advance.”

The top eight finishers in this week’s 21-team regional field advance to the NCAA Championships on May 20-23, which Arkansas is a heavy favorite to do. The Lady Razorbacks open play at 11 a. m. Central today on the par-72 Lincoln Hills Golf Club course in Sacramento, Calif., that measures roughly 6, 500 yards. The 54-hole event concludes Saturday.

Arkansas’ approach to NCAA play is the same tack Estes-Taylor used in preparing for last month’s SEC Championships, in which the Lady Razorbacks turned in a program-best third-place finish. Because Arkansas has never played the Lincoln Hills course, Estes-Taylor e-mailed holeby-hole descriptions of the course to the Lady Razorbacks, just like she did prior to the SEC tournament.

Estes-Taylor also consulted Lincoln Hills General Manager Mark Brouwer, a former employee at Stonebridge Meadows Golf Club in Fayetteville. One of the things Estes-Taylor learned is the Lincoln Hills course is “pretty demanding off the tee” because of wetlands areas and housing that border the majority of the fairways.

Brouwer gave Estes-Taylor a short list of holes at Blessings — Arkansas’ home course in Johnson — that are similar to many of those at Lincoln Hills. The greens at Blessings also were cultivated to closely resemble the speed of those at Lincoln Hills.

Arkansas is led by senior Stacy Lewis’, the nation’s second-ranked player who recently won her second SEC championship and is the defending national champion. Estes-Taylor was quick to add, however, the rest of the Lady Razorbacks have done a solid job behind Lewis to achieve their current ranking.

Perhaps no player has been as critical as junior Lucy Nunn, whose 75. 97 per-round stroke average trails only Lewis. Nunn is also the most experienced player in Arkansas ’ lineup other than Lewis.

“Basically, we’ve tried to work on slowing Lucy down,” Estes-Taylor said. “I challenge her to always be last in practice when we’re walking down the fairways because she likes to sprint and get ahead and execute golf shots without really thinking them through.

“ We’ve slowed her down that way, and we’ve got her doing a lot of visualization stuff, especially pre-round. During her warm-ups, she actually goes and lays down and tries to visualize herself being successful and hitting good golf shots out on the course.”

For Arkansas, visualizing success is a strategy that’s worked all season, and one Estes-Taylor is banking on to help the Lady Razorbacks advance — regardless of the field. UA women’s golf glance WHAT NCAA West Regional WHEN Today-Saturday WHERE Lincoln Hills Golf Club, Sacramento WHO No. 9 Arkansas will compete for one of eight NCAA qualifying spots against 23 other teams that include No. 1 Southern California, No. 5 Arizona State, No. 7 Oklahoma State, No. 13 Arizona, No. 17 Michigan State, No. 22 California and No. 25 Stanford. NOTEWORTHY Arkansas’ lineup will consist of senior Stacy Lewis, the two-time SEC champion and defending NCAA champion, junior Lucy Nunn, sophomores Kristin Ingram and Alex Schulte and freshman Kelli Shean.