PHOTO COURTESY UTRGV ATHLETICS
The UTRGV Men’s and Women’s Golf Teams are preparing for the Southland Conference Tournament, feeling confident at their chances this year, according to team players.
Last year, the women’s team ended seventh out of eight while the men’s team ended third out of eleven.
Director of Golf Houston Moore said the teams are not going to change anything in their preparation.
“We’re preparing like we always do for any other event,” Moore said. “We’re looking at the golf course, seeing what the golf course brings. We’re monitoring our practice, seeing if we’re practicing the right things, getting ready leading up to that event. And we’re going to show up and take it as another opportunity to compete. We’re not putting any extra emphasis on it because it is our championships.”
The women’s tournament starts today and ends Wednesday at the Kissing Tree Golf Club in San Marcos. The men’s tournament starts on April 20 and ends April 22 at Comanche Trace Golf Course in Kerrville, Texas.
The women’s team, for its best performance of the season, finished second-of-10 at the Islanders Collegiate Invitational Feb. 16 and 17 in Corpus Christi, 4 points behind Houston Christian University.
Junior golfer Natalia Rodriguez said the ladies feel pretty good going into this year’s tournament and have been putting in the work.
“I think we all feel pretty good in these last tournaments,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve been practicing a lot, so I think we’re all feeling pretty confident with ourselves going to the conference and pretty happy with what we have been doing.”
The men’s team won the Compadres Collegiate at the Playa Paraiso Golf Club in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, defeating schools such as the University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of North Texas and Drake University.
Freshman golfer Jorge Martin Sampedro said the team is going to do its best not to let pressure play a role.
“So, we will try to take that pressure on and make it better for us to compete and to get motivated to practice these previous weeks,” Sampedro said.
