The Knights women’s golf team finished third in the conference, their best ever finish. This season, the team looks to build off that success and has already had what head coach Jerry Bergsma described as “some of our top performances in our program’s history.”
The Knights kicked off the season at the Battle on the Border – a golf tournament in Bristol, Wisconsin. The team was led by fifth-year senior Chandler Sjoerdsma, whose +10 score over the course of the two-day tournament tied for first place in the individual competition. Sjoerdsma and the team combined to shoot +81 and finished the tournament third out of 18 teams.
After shooting a team score of 348 on the first day of the Olivet Invite, the Calvin Knights women’s golf team set a new school record low of 314 strokes on the second day , to finish the two-day tournament ranked sixth out of 14 teams. Calvin’s previous record of 316 strokes was set just last season.
The record-breaking second day was the lowest score of any team on that day and helped move the Knights from 10th place to sixth. According to Sjoerdsma and Bergsma, the Olivet course is one of the toughest to play on, making the new record even more impressive.
After the first day, the team spent a lot of time discussing mental attitudes and confidence. Sjoerdsma believes the team was able to better mentally prepare in between the days and it set themselves up to succeed on the second day.
“We talked about it a lot as a team afterwards, when we were having dinner, that we knew we could play well,” Sjoerdsma said. “Golf is 20% physical and 80% mental, and on the second day we were just finally confident.”
Junior Kayla Adkins echoed this sentiment regarding the difference between the first and second day. “I’m going to go out and be confident in what I’m doing and stick to the basics. It was like a complete 180,” Adkins said.
The Knights were led by Sjoerdsma, whose 159 finish tied her for 12th place in the individual scoring. Sjoerdsma was followed by freshman Brooke Haney, who finished tied for 27th with a two-day score of 165.
Adkins, after shooting 93 on day one, shaved 18 strokes off of her day-one total and shot a collegiate low of 75 on day two to finish 33rd overall. The career day came after a slow start, with a double bogey on the first hole. Over the last 17 holes Adkins only shot a combined +1.
“It felt really good, especially after what I would call a bad day on day one,” Adkins told Chimes.
Sophomore Andrea Diemer’s consistent performance rounded out the Knights record-breaking day. Diemer shot 85 both days to finish with 170 points and 38th place.
On Sept. 12, the Knights competed at MIAA Jamboree #1 – the first of six MIAA competitions that determine the conference champion – and placed second with a score of 321 strokes, just behind Saint Mary’s College’s 313. The Knights were once again led by Sjoerdsma, who scored 76 and placed third individually, followed closely by junior Grace Elfring who shot 80 and finished seventh.
“It was really a good way to get things going.” Bergsma told Chimes.
The Knights are back in action on Friday, Sept. 20 when they travel to Kansasville, Wisconsin to take place in the Midwest Region Fall Classic.
