The Cal Poly women’s golf team took third place at the Big West Conference Championships April 19 at the Tijeras Creek Golf Club in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. and is now looking forward to the next few years.
This is the highest Big West finish for head coach Scott Cartwright, with one of the youngest lineups in his career.
“It was a great accomplishment for the girls this year, being a very young team — seven freshmen, two sophomores and one junior,” Cartwright said.
The five players who competed finished with a total score of 895 (31 over par) for the Mustangs, falling only to second-place finisher Long Beach State’s 21 over par and reigning champion UC Davis’ three over par.
This year marked a new starting lineup and a one-place higher finish from last year’s finish of fourth place, which was aided by a lineup of seniors.
“I think it opened up some doors because there were some opportunities for these players to come in and play right away,” Cartwright said. “And having the opportunity to play right away was a big part of getting a great freshmen class.”
Having a successful team of mostly freshmen means there is time to improve and succeed in seasons to come, he said.
Communication studies freshman Taylor Yoshitake said she can’t wait to see where her team will go in the next few years.
“We had really high hopes because we’re all newbies,” she said. “I’m hoping that one day we will win a NCAA Championship as a team, and we could go to championships individually.”
Yoshitake was Cal Poly’s highest Big West finisher at seventh place. She helped keep the team’s stroke total down with individual rounds of one over par, two over par and four over par.
“I think as a team we finished really well, (and) I was pretty happy with how I played individually,” Yoshitake said.
Two other Cal Poly golfers finished in the top 10: materials engineering sophomore Alicia Weber placed eighth, while recreation, parks and tourism administration freshman Morgan Weber took tenth.
Other teammates didn’t fair as well, but are looking for more redemption.
Business administration freshman Asia Adell finished 23rd, although she said she could have done better.
“I shot 82 the first day, and I came back with 74 and a 76,” Adell said. “So I redeemed myself but still wish I could have gotten off to a little better start.”
Expectations that are too high can be a downfall at times, she said.
“I can throttle back a little bit, and we would probably be a little bit more successful, but third is awesome,” she said. “I can’t complain at all. We beat UC Irvine, which was one of our goals.”
Cal Poly beat out UC Irvine for the third place position the Anteaters took last year. Adell said Davis and Long Beach are next.
With so much confidence and success from a team that has years ahead of it, Cartwright has a lot to be excited about, especially picking up right where they left off, he said.
“We’re looking forward to getting started again in September and firing it back up,” Cartwright said. “We’ve got about another month of some soft workouts and getting through school before we get ready to go again next year.”