While the snow continues to fall in Athens, the Ohio golf team is getting ready for its spring season, and preparing for the spring golf season at Ohio University is no easy task.
With temperatures lingering in the 30s and 40s, trying to practice getting up and down from the greenside bunker becomes rather unpleasant, if possible at all.
While teams located in the south have the benefit of warm weather year-round, Ohio is forced to resort to teeing off in the batting cages, because there is nowhere else for the players to practice their stroke while staying warm.
We hit indoors two nights a week in the winter whenever we can't play outside
golfer Mark Cimarolli said. We hit at the batting cages. They serve their purpose.
Cimarolli is one of five Bobcats who averaged below 75 this past fall.
We have four or five guys who are all about the same as far as ability coach Bob Cooley said. Brian Elsea and Jon Johasky are the juniors and the other three are sophomores so you look to your older players for leadership.
Elsea and Johasky, joined by sophomores Cimarolli, Ryan Siekmann, Blake Russell and Grant Christman, will have their first chance to show what they can do this weekend in the St. Croix Collegiate Classic, played today through Friday in the Virgin Islands. Some less exotic locations the team will be traveling to later in the season include North Carolina, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The team also will be playing in tournaments in Akron and Columbus before visiting Westerville for the Mid-American Conference Championships in early May, which are what really matters to the team.
We're obviously excited to see how we can do at the MAC Championships
Cimarolli said.
Fighting through the cold and snow to prepare for the spring season might not be easy, but the golf team does it with its ultimate goal in mind.
Our goal is to win the conference championship
Cooley said.
Women also warming up
Like its counterpart, the women's golf team is also getting ready for its upcoming spring season.
Along with the men's team, the Bobcat women have been working out in the weight room over the past six weeks, as well as hitting balls when they get the chance.
We've actually been able to get out and play a little bit over the past couple of weeks
Cooley said.
Playing outside should benefit the team this week at the East/West Rio Verde Invitational in Arizona.
It will be nice to play in the nice weather even though it's winter here
Kristen Mautz said, so it should be good to get back into the swing of things.
The women hope to pick up where they left off at the end of the fall season, when they won their final two tournaments behind the play of Sara Ann Palmer and Julie Tomlinson.
Sara Ann Palmer and Julie Tomlinson had a good fall season
and we're looking for them to lead the women this spring
Cooley said.
The women's team will follow up its trip to Arizona with a tournament in Florida at the end of the month, followed by tournaments in Bloomington and Columbus later in the season.
However, like the men's team, the women have one major goal in mind: the MAC Championships in late April.
We're really trying to focus on the MAC Championships
Mautz said. We really feel that we have a good chance this year to make a good placement and do better than we have in past years.
