Marguerite Johnson: Back to School, Start of a New Season
As any student-athlete will tell you, the new school year and the start of a new season brings teammate reunions, excitement, new equipment (some recycled from last year), physicals and many meetings. It can all be quite overwhelming for the first week of the semester and starting unfamiliar classes with sometimes unfamiliar teachers throws another bullet on your 'To Do' list. Not to mention, the start of practice and the seemingly daunting qualifying rounds we had in front of us. With this year being my fifth year at Toledo, I feel I have become somewhat of a pro at all of the tasks that need to be completed that hectic first week. That's not to say, however, that I wasn't exhausted by the end of that first week!
Qualifying, for those who don't know, is when our team plays to compete for spots on the traveling squad. With our first tournament approaching three weekends into school, we had two weekends to cram in seven rounds of golf. This year qualifying started with rain and storms and ended with rain and storms, but the five days in between were beautiful and we couldn't have asked for better weather while we were playing our home course, Sylvania Country Club. Our team scores during qualifying were the best we've had since my time here and that is very exciting for our upcoming season. It can be a bit edgy on the first day with everyone's nerves a bit jumbled and their thoughts a bit scattered, but we survived in fine fashion like always. After the first weekend it was neck and neck with the top six scores all within 14 strokes. Everyone's hard work and tournament play over the summer was really showing through. For our first tournament at Michigan State, the top five players will be competing so we knew it was going to come down to every last stroke. That is the game of golf, though, because every tournament we play in is won by one or two strokes so we experience firsthand how that missed three-footer can really make or break your day.
The final four days were filled with hard work, good scores and team bonding. The fight for the top five spots was a battle until the end of the final round. I have to give kudos to my teammates for all their efforts these past few weeks and encourage them to keep it up going into the start of tournaments. We all had our excellent, good, and not so good shots these past seven rounds but we battled to never give up. Never giving up is what wins tournaments and that is what we are always out to do. WIN!
I am so excited to be a member of the Toledo Women's Golf Team because the people who represent our team are very fun and inspiring people. Furthermore, I want to introduce our incoming teammates who have been nothing but stellar these first few crazy weeks. We have two freshmen - Allison Shultz (Cincinnati, OH) and Kate Hoops (Lima, OH) - and a sophomore transfer from Findlay, OH - Kaitlyn Van Gunten. As we head into our first tournament we are excited to get the competition underway and show the world what Toledo Golf can do. Our tournament schedule this year is very good and we hope the Toledo community can show their support while we compete against schools from across the nation! Check back again for the update on our play at Michigan State.
Marguerite Johnson is a senior from Battle Creek, MI and is majoring in civil engineering with a minor in business.
