Keene State Women’s Golf wrapped up its only home tournament of the season at the Keene Country Club on Tuesday, Sept. 22, in the four-team Keene Invitational. The Owls took home the team title, shooting 383 as a team. The Owls’ opponents, Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU), Southern Maine and Lasell University, shot 400, 430, and 515, respectively.
The Invitational was only the second tournament of the season for the women’s golf team. The team came second in the ECSU Women’s Collegiate Invitational at the Windham Golf Course in Connecticut. Keene State shot 375 against a field of five teams to earn silver, being bested by the hosting Warriors.
Two Owls finished in the top five of the tournament. Senior Madi Mousley and sophomore Sadie Murray shot 88 and 92 on the par 72 course. Both golfers had a birdie, with Mousley recording two strokes on the par 3 eighth hole and Murray gaining a two on the par 3 10th hole.
Head Coach Jeff Timmer said that the match went well. “Obviously, we came away with the win, which is great,” Timmer said. “[A lot of the players] did a better job on the second nine than the first nine, which tells me that they were really concentrated all the way through it. When you’re out there for four hours, it gets rough.”
Timmer has been the head coach of both men’s and women’s golf since 2021, and he has taught lessons in golf at Keene State since 2002 as a professor in the Exercise Science department.
Mousley felt she improved from last season. “Out of my four years at Keene State, that was my best score at our home invitational,” Mousley said. “It’s not my personal best, which is an 83. On the [front nine], I struggled a little bit, shooting a 47, but on the back nine I got a birdie on hole 10. That gave me a good start for the back nine, and I finished with a 41.”
Murray said that she struggled on the front nine, but that the team played well. “I definitely pulled it back together on the back,” Murray said. “But I would say as a team, and with how early we are in the season, I would say we performed well. We had a couple players who had their first time playing a collegiate match, so just seeing them out there having a good time, shooting as well as we did as a team, was very good.”
Timmer commented on the difficulty of the course during the Invitational. “The Keene Country Club isn’t easy for the women, just simply because there’s a lot of carry holes,” said Timmer. “You’ve got to hit the ball pretty far [on those carry holes]. The greens are quite tough in terms of hills and speed, so it’s not an easy course. [Because the course was wet] you don’t get any roll, so when you hit your drive, it would just stick into the soft grass rather than roll another 10 to 20 yards.”
Keene State’s next invitational, the Hartford/Indian Hill Invitational, was cancelled due to inclement weather. On Sunday, Oct. 4, the Owls travel north to the University of Southern Maine to compete in the USM Invitational at Riverside Golf Course in Portland, Maine.
Frank LeBlanc can be contacted at
fleblanc@kscequinox.com
