This weekend the 56th-ranked UW Women's golf team plays host to a field of 11 other schools in the 2008 Badger Women's Golf Invitational.
The Badgers will field a lineup of senior Isabelle Alvarez, juniors Kelsey Verbeten and Heather Herrick and sophomore Carly Werwie. Also starting for Wisconsin is junior Molly Schemm, a transfer from Northern Iowa, who will be making her Badger debut. Five other UW golfers will be playing as individuals.
Wisconsin is coming off a 14th-place finish last week at the Cougar Classic. The Badgers played a solid first round and started strong in the second before faltering on the back nine holes. But head coach Todd Oehrlein remains optimistic about the direction of his team's play and the tremendous depth they possess.
Right now, pretty much every time we've stepped onto the golf course, we've had six or seven girls all with scores and players with scores 76 or below,"" Oehrlein said. ""And so there's a lot of competition, much more depth than what we've had in the past, and that competition is at a strong level.""
Alvarez believes this competition within the team has been especially positive in motivating each player to play her best.
""The players that have already been here, we've improved a lot,"" Alvarez said. ""It's good because we're creating competition amongst ourselves and getting ready for more competition against other teams. I think the five of us that are playing the lineup and the other five are just ready to get out there and play really good golf.""
In order to have a chance to win the tournament, the Badgers will need to play exceptionally well this time around against an incredibly competitive field.
This group includes four top-50 nationally ranked teams in Indiana, Tulane, College of Charleston and No. 2 Cal Berkley. But the Badgers are trying to keep a grounded perspective about where they finish after the final round.
""We're being realistic about playing really good teams, but we're also seeing golf is golf,"" Alvarez said. ""Any team who's prepared - whose mindset for a tournament is to put up good numbers, we're trying to take it as we can beat them. We're also not thinking about rankings or anything, just thinking about putting up good scores, playing golf and having fun.""
Wisconsin will also look to use its familiarity with University Ridge Golf Course as an advantage throughout the tournament.
""There's some added distractions being at home that we aren't necessarily accustomed to,"" Oehrlein said. ""But then there's the familiarity with the golf course - that comfort sitting on the tee, knowing the golf shots, being familiar with the greens. We get a chance to get [the rest of the field] on our home golf course, and it's a great opportunity.
But it's one more golf tournament in the whole picture. We need to try to stay consistent and try to take a consistent approach with it.""
The 54-hole invitational will take place at University Ridge in Verona, a par 72, 6,216-yard course. First round action begins Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m.
-uwbadgers.com contributed to this report
