Women’s golf places sixth at D-III Classic

The Jewel Golf Club proved to be the real competition for the Titans over the weekend.

The UW Oshkosh women’s golf team placed sixth out of 13 teams in the Division III Classic at The Jewel Golf Club last weekend.
UWO junior Hannah Braun followed up her victory in the Titan Classic and a seventh-place finish at Wartburg College by placing 16th out of 65 participants in the D-III Classic.

After finishing the first round with an 82, Braun came back to post a 77 on Day two to finish the weekend at 15-over par.
Finishing close behind Braun was senior Kayla Priebe at 16-over-par. Priebe posted scores of 80 both days to end tied for 17th place.
Priebe said the difficulty of the course forced the team to stay focused through adversity.

“[The Jewel] is one of the hardest courses we play in my opinion due to the elevation changes and sand traps,” Priebe said. “Because of this, it is extremely important to stay focused and stay positive even if you have a bad hole, and I think my team and I did that well this weekend.”

Priebe played the course two years ago when the Titans last participated in the D-III Classic and said it was beneficial to her this time around.
“Playing The Jewel two years ago was a little bit helpful because I recognized some of the holes,” Priebe said. “However, there is a lot of slope and some blind shots that I did not remember.”

For the second-straight meet, Carleton College came away victorious. Carleton College will not be in any of the Titans’ remaining outings but could possibly be in the NCAA D-III National Championship outing in May.

Freshman Margherite Pettenuzzo tied for 29th by golfing rounds of 84 and 81.

Pettenuzzo said she effectively used her driver to set her up well on longer holes.

“I hit my driver extremely well and it put me in the best possible position with my approach shots to the green,” Pettenuzzo said. “I also feel like I made the putts that I needed to make, especially a couple 6-foot putts for par.”

Freshman Erika Priebe and junior Hanna Rebholz finished at 23 and 24-over-par, respectively.

Head coach Liza Ruetten was proud of her team for not getting down when presented with the tough course.

“All players remained very focused on the course during extreme hot and humid conditions,” Ruetten said. “I am most proud of this team and their on-course attitudes as all did their best to let an errant shot go to the back of their mind.”

The Titans head to UW-Whitewater for the UW-Whitewater Invitational Sept. 22 at the Oaks Golf Course in Cottage Grove. UWO will see a couple of tough Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schools and will be looking to size them up with the WIAC championship only three weeks away.
Ruetten said UW-Stout and Whitewater in particular will be tough to beat, but they have done it before and can do it again.

“Stout and Whitewater will both be tough competitors for us at our conference championship,” Ruetten said. “We have beat Stout twice and Whitewater once but both teams are extremely capable of putting up low team scores with their experienced rosters. Our conference championship will be a battle during all three rounds.”