Bucknell University Athletics
Bison Women's Golf Begins Patriot League Era Saturday at Bucknell Invitational
9/6/2012 8:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
A new era begins this weekend for the Bucknell women's golf team, as it kicks off its first season as a member of the Patriot League with its annual fall tournament at the Bucknell Golf Club. The 54-hole event kicks off Saturday morning with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start, and it will conclude on Sunday.
The Patriot League has added women's golf as its 24th championship sport in 2012-13, and the inaugural Patriot League Women's Golf Championship will be held at the Bucknell Golf Club on Apr. 20-21. Bucknell, which has competed in the Big South since 2003, joins Holy Cross, Lehigh and Navy as Patriot League teams sponsoring women's golf. Boston University also has women's golf and will begin competing in the Patriot League in 2013-14.
Lehigh, Navy and Boston University are three of the 14 visiting teams that will compete at the Bucknell Invitational this weekend. Others in the strong field include Seton Hall, Rutgers, Radford, Columbia, Wagner, Robert Morris, Saint Francis (Pa.), Cleveland State, St. Francis (N.Y.), McDaniel and Kutztown.
The Bison have won their home tournament in each of the last two seasons. Last September, Bucknell edged Rutgers by just one shot, as Kasha Scottbirdied the 17th hole en route to a clutch final-round 70 that proved to be the difference. After opening with a 310 team score, the Bison closed with a pair of 298s. Behind Bucknell and Rutgers, Seton Hall, Lehigh and Radford rounded out the top five.
In 2010, Bucknell closed out its invitational with a school-record 296 to win the team title by 19 shots over William & Mary. Katie Jurenovich claimed the individual championship in a four-hole playoff. The Bison also won the Bucknell Invitational in 2006. Jurenovich, Teri Schlang and Jess Hetrichhave captured individual titles.
While the Bison have departed the Big South, it was certainly a worthwhile 10-year run in that league. The Bison finished as high as third at the Big South Championship in 2011, with current junior Lauren Bernardfinishing runner-up as a freshman that year. The Big South membership helped raised Bucknell's profile in the south, opening doors to a number of high-profile tournaments that will remain on the team's schedule.
This season for example, Bucknell has received an invitation to Michigan's Wolverine Invitational, and they will return to the Palmetto Invitational and the Edwin Watts Kiawah Classic, both held at the famed Kiawah Island resort in South Carolina.
Bucknell will also play in the MAC Preview event at the Longaberger Golf Club in Ohio, as well as events hosted by Penn State and UNC Greensboro. And for the second straight year, the Bison will host a tournament in Las Vegas during Spring Break.
Even though he says it will be bittersweet leaving behind the friendships and rivalries developed over the course of 10 years in the Big South, head coach Kevin Jamiesonis optimistic that competing in the Patriot League will prove to be just as beneficial.
"I think this is a positive move in that our team will now have the opportunity to help their peers in Bucknell Athletics compete for the Presidents' Cup," said Jamieson. "Many of our supporters were unfamiliar with the other programs in the Big South, but they will be able to identify with schools like Lehigh and Navy. We feel like our women's golf program at Bucknell is capable of winning the championship and becoming one of the cornerstones of the Patriot League. Competing in the Big South allowed us to travel quite a bit and really get our name out there. People know we can be competitive, and that definitely will not change even though we are moving over to a first-year league."
The Bison return three of their five regular starters from a year ago, losing only former All-Big South honoree Minjoo Lee and Brittany Rendell to graduation. The three returning starters are all juniors -- Bernard, Scott and Bridget Wilcox- and all have had numerous shining moments so far in their young careers.
Scott was the No. 1 scorer on the squad last season, averaging a 77.8 over the fall and spring seasons. In addition to her terrific performance in helping the team win the Bucknell Invitational, she also finished T-7th at the Wendy's Invitational at Coosaw Creek in Charleston, S.C., and she closed with rounds of 74-73 after a slow start at the Kiawah Island Intercollegiate in February.
Wilcox averaged 78.6 in 2011-12, including a team-best 77.2 in an outstanding spring season. She was Bucknell's top finisher at the 2012 Big South Championship, placing T-13th with rounds of 77-77-80. Wilcox also placed T-11th at the Bison Challenge at Paiute in Las Vegas, and in the first round of the UNCW Seahawk Classic she fired a 1-under 71 that propelled her to another top-20 finish. Wilcox obviously has the ability to go very low, as evidenced by her 3-under 69 at Penn State in the fall of her freshman year, the first sub-70 round in program history.
Bernard started last season with a pair of seventh-place finishes at the Bucknell Invitational and the Badger Invitational. She shot 77-72-76 at Bucknell and 78-75-77 at Wisconsin, and she also had a 2-over 74 at the East Carolina Lady Pirate Invitational in October. Bernard, who won the Philadelphia Amateur Championship in the summer of 2011, earned All-Big South honors as a freshman. She finished second in the league that year, falling just one shot out of a playoff and a possible individual berth to the NCAA Championship.
"What separates these three juniors is that they all provide the ability to hit that `home run,'" said Jamieson. "Each of them can give us that really low score, but the nice thing is that they don't have to press in every round. They know that they aren't the only bullet that we have. It's almost like they have taken turns carrying us, even from round to round. They are so supportive of one another. They are all very competitive and want to beat each other, but they know that in order for us to be a great team they need to pick each other up. We do have two younger players in the lineup this year, so they are definitely going to have to carry even more of the load, but they are excited to do it."
Competing for the fourth and fifth spots in the lineup are a pair of much-improved sophomores and two very promising first-year players. Sophomores Lexi Klein and Emily Timmonsdid not see much tournament action last season, but both worked extremely hard on their games over the summer and have hit the ground running during the preseason.
"It has been like a tale of two seasons for Lexi and Emily so far," said Jamieson. "I think last year both of them got behind fairly quickly because of all the rain that kept the course closed for so long. They never really got locked in to our system. But now they have had a full year of watching and listening, and they have worked very hard with our video system at our new practice facility. This year they are just so much more confident. Emily absolutely bombs the ball, and she has had some really good practice rounds in the 70s. We are working on that consistency. Lexi has been very consistent in that 80-82 range. If she can carry that into our tournaments, it would be big for us."
The two newcomers to keep an eye on are Jen Lee, a highly decorated player from Rye, N.Y., and Cincinnati native Meghan Garanich. Lee was a three-time all-state selection and two-time Journal-News Girls Golfer of the Year at Rye High School just outside New York City. Garanich finished third in her league championship and was a First Team All-City selection at Ursuline Academy.
"The biggest asset that both of our freshmen possess is that they are capable of handling the distance of college golf courses," Jamison noted. "The courses are being set up longer and longer, but I don't think Jen or Meghan will be overwhelmed by the length at all. Both come in with excellent short games, which is something that we really stress. Jen makes a ton of birdies, we just need to rein her in a little bit and erase the double-bogeys. As she gets a little more accustomed to our course strategy, she is really going to be a home run threat for us. That is going to be her big focus this fall. Meghan has shown flashes of brilliance so far, and she also has a chance to be a very good player in the not-too-distant future."
Walk-on Katie Mancinois the lone senior on the roster this year. Mancino has been battling some injuries since joining the program two seasons ago, but as she has gotten healthier, her game has improved quite a bit.
As the team prepares for the start of the 2012-13 season, Jamieson is pleased with the camaraderie in this group, in addition to the potential for low scores.
"We have really developed a strong team atmosphere," said Jamieson. "Everyone is involved, everyone is active. It is a great scene here every day at the practice facility, and they are all just fun to be around. It started a few years ago with Katie Jurenovichshowing the three current juniors how to prepare, and now they are passing that along to the younger players. I can't wait to see how this team progresses all the way through the spring."
Following the Bucknell Invitational, the Bison will have a week off before heading to the Wolvarine Invitational in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Nittany Lion Invitational, the MAC Preview and the Palmetto Invitational round out the fall schedule.
