APSU Sports: Women’s Golf
Clarksville, TN – A young Austin Peay State University women’s golf team will get an early season start when it travels to Huntsville, AL, to participate in the JSU Chris Banister Golf Classic, Sunday-Tuesday, to be played at Hampton Cove’s Highland Course, a Robert Trent Jones-designed layout.
The tourney normally is played at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Silver Lakes, AL, but that course is still recovering from damage incurred from April’s tornado.
In addition to the Lady Govs, the 10-team tourney will feature Memphis, Central Arkansas, Lamar, Western Kentucky, Samford, Mercer, Montevallo and two Ohio Valley Conference foes, Tennessee Tech and host Jacksonville State.
The Lady Govs lost three seniors from last season’s team, including four-time all-OVC selection Chelsea Harris, now the Lady Govs graduate assistant. In fact, Ashley Averitt is the lone senior on this youthful squad.
Holly Batey, the Lady Govs most improved player a year ago, and junior college transfer Lauren Bond are the only juniors while Rachel Deaton, Tabitha Beard and Tala Mumford are all sophomores. Deaton, along with Averitt, played in the Ohio Valley Conference championship last spring in Dickson.
Two freshmen also have joined the Lady Govs for 2011-12: Meghan Mueller, from Columbia, MO, and Marta Gutierrez, of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands.
With school starting this week, all eight girls jumped into practice, with qualifying for the season-opening tourney beginning Tuesday. All the players will travel to Alabama, five representing the APSU team, and the other three playing as individuals.
“We are excited to get the season started and the Highland Course is a great venue,” APSU coach Sara Robson said. “The girls are hitting the ball well and doing a great job of concentrating on scoring. It has been fun to watch the girls play because they are doing all the right things.
“It’s obvious they have worked hard to improve the weak areas of their games this summer and that hard work is paying off. Our goal this week in Huntsville is to play one shot at a time, stay focused and not worry as much about how we are hitting the ball but concentrating on scoring.”
