Johnson, Guschewski lead golf team, CMU finishes 17th
Central Michigan golf headed west over spring break to compete in the Clover Cup at Longbow Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona.
The Chippewas finished in last place with a final stroke count of 968, 13 strokes behind 16th place. Head Coach Cheryl Stacy said her team struggled on the par fives, which limited how low they could shoot.
The Clover Cup field included seven teams in the top 100 of Golfstat’s team rankings, including No. 20 Notre Dame and No. 37 Southern Methodist, who took first place.
“The team was playing with so many good players, they were a lot more focused and realized what they have to do to get to that point,” said Stacy.
Sophomore Natalie Johnson shot the lowest score for CMU during the event with a final count of 241, which ranked 76th out of 85 players in the tournament. After opening the tournament with scores of 83 and 82, Johnson was able to improve her results by shooting a career-best 76 on Sunday.
“My putting wasn’t very good the first and second day, but on the third day I finally made some putts for birdie,” Johnson said.
Sophomore Chloe Guschewski was the Chippewas' second-leading performer with a 242.
“There were a few things I could have avoided doing to potentially have a better score, but I was pleased overall with how I played,” Guschewski said.
While in Arizona, the team was able to play practice rounds almost every day, including a trip to Arizona State’s home of Karsten Golf Course. Stacy and Assistant Coach Lauren Grogan said it was good for the team to play on grass so that they could get re-acclimated to hitting off real turf and playing outdoors after having the winter off.
“They did a lot better this time than the first trip. It was just uncomfortable with some of the even lies and adjusting to desert golf,” Stacy said.
“Out there, the ball flies a little bit further, so you have to adjust for that and that emphasizes the true advantage of keeping your ball in play. If you’re off the fairway, you’re not in the rough, it’s in the desert,” Grogan said of playing in desert conditions.
CMU will continue its busy month when they take off for Sorrento, Florida on Friday to compete in the MSU Spring Citrus Challenge at Red Tail Golf Club.
