Strudwick unveils Eagles' spring schedule
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Five events highlight the spring for the Carson-Newman women’s golf team in the schedule revealed by coach Suzanne Strudwick on Sunday.
VIDEO: Suzanne Strudwick Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Five events highlight the spring for the Carson-Newman women's golf team in the schedule revealed by coach Suzanne Strudwick on Sunday.
It has been exactly 10 months since the Eagles last saw tournament action, finishing in seventh at the Wingate Low Country Invitational on March 3, 2020. The season was cut short with three events, including the South Atlantic Conference Championship, still left to play. The Eagles, like most of the conference, was forced to forgo its typical fall slate due to the ongoing pandemic.
"There's so many different aspects to it," Strudwick said. "Unfortunately, we're still having to think about COVID and the issues with that. I would have typically gone down to Florida. We normally play at least two of three events in Florida. We're not doing that. The amount of travel it takes, we've flown before, I just don't want to take that risk, so we're staying more regional. We're lucky that we don't have the restriction of just conference only, but I am able to go a bit more regionally."
At present standing, the spring is set to kick off with the Battle at Hilton Head February 22-23 at the Palmetto Dunes' Robert Trent Jones Oceanfront Course in Hilton Head Island, S.C. This will be the third-straight season Strudwick's team appears in the event hosted by Barton. Last year's showing was the best for the team yet, taking second-place with a 31-over 607.
The second event takes C-N back to the Palmetto State just a few days later, this time for Limestone's Low Tide Intercollegiate at the Dunes West Golf Club in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. This is a brand-new event for the team, hosted by the SAC's newest member.
The final three events on the slate keep the Eagles within East Tennessee, starting with back-to-back events at the Sevierville Golf Club, the home course of the Orange and Blue.
C-N will take a second chance at making its fifth appearance at the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate from March 14-16. The three-day event hosted by Division I team Tennessee Tech takes place on the Highlands Course in Sevierville. Strudwick's club matched its best appearance at the event back in 2019 with a fourth-place finish, highlighted by top 20 performances from Reagan Kinnie and Maeve Cummins (Waringstown, Northern Ireland).
The second event at Sevierville, this time at the River Course, is Carson-Newman's Smoky Mountain Shootout, the first event C-N has hosted since September 2015. The Eagles hosted that tournament for five-straight seasons, finishing as high as second-place. This time, it will be a one-day, 36-hole event.
"That last week in March, first week in April, there wasn't really anything on the schedule," Strudwick said. "Our conference event is a week later, so it would have been too big of a gap middle of March to the conference event. It would have been almost four weeks off. That's too long to not be competing, so that's why I chose to go ahead and put in an event. It's a one-day, 36 holes, so teams can come in the day before, play a practice round."
The SAC Championship sends the Eagles to the Woodlake Golf Club in Tazewell, Tenn. Lincoln Memorial will remain the host team since it was scheduled to host the 2020 championship before it was cancelled. C-N has landed in the top 10 in all but one of its trips to the league event since its inception in 2009. The Eagles have lifted the hardware three times: 2015, 2011 and 2009. On the individual side, Cummins still sits as the reigning top medalist after her win in 2019. Her win marked the third SAC Champion for the program with Elizabeth England winning in 2017 and Sarah Jane Sinard in 2009.
All of this leads to the Eagles working to earn a spot in the NCAA South Regional, set to take place May 3-5 at the Cleveland Country Club in Cleveland, Tenn. C-N has made it to the regional as a team two previous times, finishing in fourth and seventh in 2011 and 2010, respectively. An individual clad in Orange and Blue has made it to the regional five times in program history, three of those coming in the last three seasons. Cummins took the best finish at the regional off all Eagles to make it as an individual with a share of 20th in 2019. C-N has never appeared in the National Final but was represented by Mary Tunnell in 2011, who finished in 27th.
Each event throughout the spring will be followed up with a full recap with results on cneagles.com. As the season approaches, all news and updates surrounding the program will make their way to Twitter @CNathletics.
