Sept. 13, 2010
VUcommodores.com caught up with head women’s golf coach Greg Allen before his team departed for College Station, Texas, for the Fall Preview, which features the top 16 teams from the 2009-10 campaign. Here is part two of his thoughts on his team heading into the season and what we can expect from a team that returns four starters and finished seventh at the NCAA Championship.
If you missed part one, you can read it here.Holly Clark is your new assistant coach. What does she bring to your team?
GA: “It’s a new experience for all of us this year. I mean Nicki (Cutler) and I were together my first three years. Every one of these players that is coming back, that’s all they knew, Nicki and I as their coaches. We are happy for Nicki and the opportunity that she’s been given at Princeton, but we couldn’t be happier to have Holly on board. She just brings an unbelievable positive attitude every single day. You can’t just help but love her and I think the team loves her already. The more they are around her daily, the more they understand who she is and what she’s all about. I can’t wait to get to a College Station (Texas) – road trips really bring a team together. Having Holly on board for this trip, she just brings so much to the table and I think she will be good for the girls. Someone they can talk to about life, about golf, about school, and she has been great for me as well. You know like Nicki, I don’t know how long we will be able to keep her. I think she’s going to come in here and just gain a tremendous amount of experience the next few years and somebody might come in here and try to hire her as a head coach.”
Talk about Lauren Stratton and her status heading into the season.
GA: “Stratty ended last season and decided that she just had to shut it down. After playing most of last season with a fracture in her lower back, she did shut it down. She took a summer school class which made her be on campus and get in with Molly (Malone, athletic trainer) and get into a routine of rehab and doing the things that she needed to do to get healthy. She’s still fighting some issues, but I think her mind status is much better going into this season knowing what’s going on with her back and her hips. I am excited for Stratty – she won a qualifier over Marina by a couple of strokes this fall and she is capable of getting her name up on this wall of All-Americans in my office. With her and Marina constantly battling it out for our one and two spots, it’s going to be fun to watch. Marina doesn’t want to give up that number one spot and Lauren wants it really badly, so its going to be fun to watch those two compete. I really feel like with Anna Leigh and with Grehan, they could easily play one or two for us throughout the year. I really like our top four. But, I still don’t know if we have seen a round when all four of those girls are on, making putts, hitting shots, scoring the way that they can score. They have all had their moments individually, but when the four of them get it together at one time, that’s when I think we really have a chance to do some neat things here.”
Talk about the newcomers and what they bring to the table.
GA: “Well, watching Rene for two and a half weeks (our only freshman), she brings an attitude that I have never seen before. That kid is always positive, always smiling, always looking at the bright side and when you have that on your team, that’s contagious. She’s going to travel with us to College Station and to add her there and to see her interact with her teammates will be interesting. It will give them a chance to get to know her a little better. She had some good rounds for us in qualifying and had a chance for a really good round and had a little learning experience down the stretch. I see her and I see Julia (Thead) going in and out of that five spot this year. They are both so eager to learn more about their games, and so eager to learn more about different shots. Its going to be fun to see them battle for that five spot. Who knows, maybe they climb up into the line-up a little higher. They both have the potential and they both have the attitude to help us.”
Talk about your schedule this year. It’s tough like other years. Do you have philosophy behind that? Does that just happen?
GA: “Based on what was going on here before I got here and based on what I was trying to do at Arizona, I think if you want to be a top program you need to compete against the best teams in the country week in and week out. My philosophy has changed just a little bit as we start the spring season, after coming off of the winter break that we have here. I don’t know if we always want to compete against the best teams the very first tournament. Unfortunately, this spring we are going to New Orleans and playing against a great field, so I think our players want to compete against the best. It is something we have always done, and I think in order to beat the best, you have to play against the best and learn how to beat the best.”