The UW Oshkosh women’s golf team finished third at the WIAC Women’s Golf Championships on Oct. 4-6 at the Reedsburg Country Club in Reedsburg, WI.

The Titans finished with a score of +135 over the 54 holes, finishing behind UW-Whitewater (+81) and UW-Stout (+89). UWO placed just ahead of UW-Eau Claire who finished with a score of 138 over-par.

Inclement weather on Saturday delayed play, forcing golfers to play between 25-27 holes on Sunday.

“Reedsburg Country Club is a very challenging layout,” Coach Liza Ruetten said. “It is a well-trapped course with large undulating greens and some tight doglegs. Now add inches of rainwater to this course. The players lost all ‘roll’ on any shots which made the 5,700- yard layout even longer for them.”

Ruetten explained how the team dealt with terrible weather conditions.

“Playing 25-27 holes for a conference championship for the final round added even more pressure for our team members,” Ruetten added. “The tee time format was eliminated and the players started on different holes throughout the course, a shotgun format. Coaches were unable to use carts to reach players quickly which also added another strike.”

Despite the conditions, Ruetten said she was very impressed with her team’s performance.

“However, all teams had to play in the same conditions,” she said. “Several of our players had their best conference performance to date and many played to their season average. Both Whitewater and Stout had some breakout performances that aided their teams in shooting lower scores and breaking away from us in team total score.”

Senior Hannah Braun, last year’s individual champion, finished ninth in this year’s tournament with 239 strokes. Fellow Titans sophomore Margherite Pettenuzzo and junior Dianna Scheibe finished tied for 13th with 243 strokes each.

This was the last tournament of the fall golf season; the team will prepare for a long break before their next tournament in April.

“Many of our players will make plans to hit indoors during our off-season,” Ruetten said. “In addition, several will try to make plans to travel south during semester breaks to prepare for April 2020. We are also fortunate to have access to a golf simulator bay in the Rec Center and an indoor field to work on short game in the Rec Plex next March.”

The team will have winter off as it prepares to compete in April in its next event.