Finding greenery among the dusty landscape of Texas, the Michigan women’s golf team teed it up for the 30th annual Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invitational in Lakeway for a three-day tournament against 12 nationally-ranked teams from around the country.
“We had some great competition this week,” Michigan coach Kathy Teichert said. “And we really proved that we can stay up with the top teams in the nation.”
After the first day of the invitational, Michigan was tied for sixth place with Arkansas, but dropped a spot to UNLV on the second day of the tournament. The team regrouped for the final day of the tournament and concluded the three-day event in sixth place.
“We finished up in the middle of the pack,” Teichert said. “I think we could have done better, we kept making little errors that added up in the end. But I was pleased with how all the girls performed. I saw some good things from all of them. We were a little shaky through the tournament, but on the last day we came together, and we worked on some of our problems and started looking pretty good.”
Senior Kim Benedict was Michigan’s top finalist, finishing the tournament tied for 11th place. It was her fourth straight top-20 finish.
“We were really hoping for a top-four finish for Kim,” Teichert said. “But overall, I’m happy where she finished. Her tempo and timing are the best I’ve seen over the past couple of weeks, and I think it’s a great preview for the next couple of tournaments coming up.”
Following behind Benedict was sophomore Laura Olin, who shot a 76 on the last day of the tournament to secure a 20th-place finish.
“Laura really held in there during her last round,” Teichert said. “She improved her score and led us to our sixth-place overall finish.”
With the Big Ten Championship approaching in less than a month, the team has two important conference tournaments against Indiana and Purdue to get itself fully prepared.
“We’re going to try and get out on the course and get some much-needed practice time in,” Teichert said. “But these next two matches will be the best chance for the girls to get fully prepared for the Championships.”