Beginning on Sunday, Feb. 18, the Samford women’s golf team competed in the ASU Spring Classic in Prattville, which they’ve won the past two years. The Bulldogs currently sit in first place at the tournament with a team score of 302.
Head Women’s Coach Joe Davidson is helping the team prepare for the rest of this season’s tournaments.
“We’ve got some good leadership on the team, so we’re looking forward to the final four tournaments of the year,” said Davidson.
Davidson explained some of what goes into getting his team ready for a tournament.
“This time of year, in prep for what we have coming up, we have to be very weather-aware,” said Davidson. “You know, you get anything early spring.”
The team is Division 1 and has been playing and competing for years. Still, they practice nearly every day, whether that be on 9-hole qualifiers or 18-hole qualifiers, in addition to a ton of short-game work involving chipping and putting.
Continually working on their short game is important to Davidson.
“This time of year, the grasses have not come in, you got a lot of tight lies, a lot of wet lies,” Davidson said.
A lie in golf is where the ball is hit. While some tournaments let you reposition the ball, many don’t, requiring the golfers to be able to play it where it lies.
Because of the nature of the game, Davidson is sure to check the weather often.
“It’s changed since this morning,” Davidson said. “We’re always checking the weather. I mean, our schedules change sometimes daily during a week based on weather, as we all know how it is around here.”
Over the past four years, the team has faced everything from rain to sleet and snow, preparing them for whatever may come.
“We use 3 different venues around here during the week,” said Davidson. “Our Mondays start off at Bent Brook. We’re working on our short game out there. Tuesday-Thursday, we’re at Inverness, and we’ll play either 9 or 18 [holes]. Plus, we use their facilities’ short game driving range. And on Fridays, we’re at Highland on the driving range.”
Saturdays and Sundays are usually off days for the team; Saturdays often serve as a time for players to practice on their own, while Sundays are for them to rest before starting back on Monday.
A new scoring system is being implemented across every league, which is affecting not just Samford’s teams, but all of college golf. For years, the traditional golf scoring system has been GolfStat, but a new system called “Clippd” is becoming the new standard, with rankings put in manually on its “Scoreboard” function.
“The problem was, we needed a clearer ranking system,” Davidson said. “And so, the NCAA came up with a new system.”
In addition to providing a clearer ranking system, Clippd also allows coaches to go in and change players up until essentially game time. However, that doesn’t mean the transition comes without its own set of challenges.
“The issue is, Scoreboard and Clippd aren’t ready yet,” said Davidson. “We’re in the middle of our season, and they’re hitting us with all this right now. And so, we’re still using GolfStat for the tournaments. And everywhere we play it’s been GolfStat, but then you have to upload all that data on scoring to Scoreboard and Clippd, and you hope it takes. You hope it works. And if not, you have to hand-load it.”
While the apps used to keep up with rankings and players may be changing, the essential basics of the game remain the same.
“Golf is still a scorecard-based game,” Davidson said. “Your opponent keeps your score on a card. Even though we do electronically do it, it’s not official until the card is signed, checked, and then turned in to the scoring area.”
Davidson remains optimistic about the future of not just this season but the ones to follow.
“We have a very strong young team. I’m looking forward to the next few years,” he said. “We’ve got a good class coming in. And I think with that, we’ll continue to get better and better as we grow.”
Contributing Writer
