Women's Golf Team Confident with Nationals on Horizon
Last week, the Kentucky women’s golf team qualified for the NCAA Championship finals for the first time in a long time. Just how long?
It was June of 1992, and there were some Kentuckians in the news. Flatwoods native Billy Ray Cyrus was rising up the Billboard Hot 100 chart with his soon-to-be number one hit “Achy Breaky Heart”. Cynthiana native Shon Walker was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the 33rd pick in the 1992 Major League Baseball Draft.
That same year, head coach Bettie Lou Evans led Kentucky into the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship finals in Arizona. It was the Wildcats’ fourth appearance in the event in five years. Little did they know that it would be 29 years before UK would make a return trip.
That’s what UK head coach Golda Borst and her team have done this season. After finishing in a tie for fourth at the Columbus Regional last week, UK punched its ticket to the NCAA Championship finals in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Borst had a vision when she took the UK job and to see all of the work pay off is quite rewarding.
“Means the world to me personally,” Borst said. “This is why I took the job – to get Kentucky to a national level and for us to be a national contender.”
The Wildcats have found a lineup that is clicking for them. It includes senior Rikke Svejgård Nielsen, sophomores Jensen Castle, María Villanueva Aperribay and Marissa Wenzler and freshman Laney Frye.
That group found something that worked for them in March, according to Svejgård Nielsen.
“I think the turning point was at Georgia in March,” Svejgård Nielsen said. “At SECs, everything started to come together and it culminated at NCAA Regionals.”
Svejgård Nielsen is a team captain who Borst admires.
“Rikke is an amazing person in every part of what she does,” Borst said. “I’m so thankful I found her in France all those years ago. She’s been a huge part of this and she’s helped me, as a coach, become a better coach. She’s grown a ton. She’s tugged everybody along. She’s been a big part.”
Borst is confident in not only Svejgård Nielsen, but the entire roster.
“They have such trust in each other,” Borst said of her team. “You think of golf as an individual sport but that’s what’s very special about this group. They feed off of each other and their work ethic is unreal.”
Despite that trust, Borst and assistant coach Brian May wanted to prepare their team for the NCAA Regionals in Columbus last week.
“Brain and I were talking and I said, ‘you realize none of these girls have been to an NCAA Tournament. We’ve got to talk about what it feels like, what it looks like. We need to prepare them for what’s to come,'” Borst said. “We tried to use the experience we had a SECs.”
The Cats needed to finish inside the top six in Columbus to advance. They finished in fourth to advance to Scottsdale, where they will play the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale. It’s a course that Borst has seen before.
“I have actually played it twice,” Borst said. “What I know is that the green complexes are probably the more challenging thing. Speed on the greens will be important to us. Ball’s going to fly a little farther. We need to have an idea of how far our irons are going and then hopefully we can make some putts.”
Castle admits she knows very little about not only Grayhawk, but the entire state of Arizona.
“The course, I have no idea. I’ll worry about that when I get there,” Castle said. “I’ve been in Arizona one night in my whole life. We’ll see the course and see what we need to work on.”
Svejgård Nielsen knows that these moments are rare and that she and her teammates need to enjoy it.
“It’s so special. We’ve worked for this all year,” Svejgård Nielsen said. “Even though it’s something that Kentucky hasn’t done for 29 years, it’s something we want to do. We’re excited just to go there and play some golf.”
Borst likes where her team is mentally heading into the event.
“They are confident and calm. And when this team is calm, look out,” Borst said. “They are really enjoying the moment. I’d say look out for the Cats.”
