UTRGV Women’s Golf Team practices swings last Wednesday morning on the Los Lagos Golf Course in Edinburg. Shown are junior Catherine Flores (from left), senior Mercedes Vega, sophomore Jackie Howard Gonzalez, freshman Preston Saiz and junior Madi Ozuna. Ryan Lugo/THE RIDER PHOTOS
The Vaqueras are set to start the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley women’s golf season with the Red Raider Invitational from Sept. 25 to 26 in Lubbock, Texas.
After that, UTRGV will participate in the Big O Classic Oct. 2 to 3 in Omaha, Nebraska; followed by The Aggie Invitational Oct. 9 to 11 in Las Cruces, New Mexico; then The Clash at Boulder Creek Oct. 22 to 24 in Boulder City, Nevada; and finally, the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Match Play Oct. 27 at the McAllen Country Club.
Head coach Bryan Novoa said the team had been practicing for almost a week and had gone through four rounds of golf.
Novoa said the team has four new players who are playing hard and getting along well.
“They took it upon themselves to get to know each other before they got here,” he said. “Gosh, it’s been probably a four-month relationship in the brewing.”
Asked about the upcoming invitational, Novoa replied only one player on the team has played The Rawls Course at Texas Tech before.
“They want to compete at the highest level,” he said. “Texas Tech [University] … some strong Texas schools are gonna be there … you definitely gonna rise to the occasion. And the girls are just excited about the opportunity at the end of the day.”
He said the Aggie Invitational at the New Mexico State University Golf Course is a fun, yet challenging course to play on.
“[NMSU Women’s Golf head coach] Danny Bowen runs a class A program,” Novoa said. “You get to see some great schools play on a great golf course … get our team exposed to the golf courses that we’re gonna be playing, kind of like in Arizona in that area of the country and, like, Vegas is a good one. It’s desert golf.”
He said playing in different environments helps the team prepare for the conference games.
Novoa said the team is getting a higher golf IQ because “preparation and intelligence win out over talent.” He said part of that is situational training and teaching the players to be smarter with decision making.
The head coach said one of the goals for the team was to win a tournament, adding it is good enough to win.
“Nobody cares how many times you finish second,” Novoa said. “We’re gonna leave it all on the golf course and go for it when we need to go for it. Play smart when we need to play smart because we’re trying to win.”
Sophomore Jackie Howard Gonzalez said the team has been playing more on the course than last year.
Gonzalez said when it comes to courses they are not familiar with, the team prepares for the course using special books with information about the courses as well as Google Maps and pictures.
“It’s kind of a book with all the information about the course,” she said. “So, what we do is meet all together, the ones that are playing kind of make an overview, decision making based on the book … and pictures, too.”
Gonzalez said she was most excited for the game against Corpus Christi as well as the invitational at Texas Tech.
“That will be really exciting,” she said. “I mean, we’re playing against really big colleges, and they’ll help a lot for a team for our competition status and overall confidence for our team, too, so that’ll be exciting.”
One of the goals for the team is to get its average scores under 300 as Gonzalez believes everyone in the team has the capacity to do that.
As for herself, she wants to do her best on the course not only with her play, but with her attitude and support for her team.
Freshman Preston Saiz said she won’t hold back and give her 100% when she goes out to compete.
Similarly to Gonzalez, Saiz also said it was one of her goals for the team to lower its scores under 300.
She also wanted to lower her own score average and adapt better to the new environment.
Asked how she’s adapting to the new team, she replied it’s gone well.
“It’s been really good,” Saiz said. “Definitely competitive, but I feel like I’ve gotten along really quickly.”
Novoa said the team has discipline as it is part of the program’s culture to be hardworking. “I’m really proud of these 10 young ladies,” Novoa said. “Love being their coach and look forward to seeing what we accomplish this year.”
