by Nick Dill, Student Reporter
What is the Northwestern golf team doing during this pandemic?
The Northwestern golf team is training and putting in work to prepare for the spring season. There are some new protocols they have to follow, but they are trying to get better day by day to be ready to play in the spring.
Unfortunately, the Great American Conference suspended all fall sports through December 31. The Rangers golf teams will hopefully have a chance to begin playing tournaments in the spring.
Nikkole Donk, head golf coach for the Rangers, is keeping her players focused this semester.
Donk said she is hoping that there will be a season in the spring.
“We’re hoping for the season in the spring,” Donk said. “For us in golf, we haven’t played for a full school calendar yet. We got canceled after our second tournament in the spring. That was in early March, and we haven’t played since.”
Donk said that they are making sure everything is solid in practice because they have a whole entire semester to prepare for the spring, but practice looks a little different this year.
She said that they’re able to practice for eight hours a week and that it is just individual only practice right now. Donk said they are working on course management and contact with the ball and club face.
She said that team activities will begin on September eighth. There are going to be some protocols once the team practices begin.
“We do temperature checks every single day,” Donk said. “They have to wear a mask on the tee box, the greens and if they are not eight feet apart they have to wear it on the driving range. Other than that they can take it off.”
Donk also said they can walk down the fairway with it on their chin, but if they come in contact with a player and want to talk to them then they have to pull it back up.
How do the players feel during this pandemic? They feel good and just look at is an opportunity to improve their craft.
Zach Robinson, a freshman on the men’s golf team, is looking at this semester as a positive because he is able to work individually with the coaches and gain more trust with the coaches.
He also looks at this season being canceled as a way to still improve his game.
“I’m using it to my advantage to get the highest grades possible,” Robinson said. “I’m really focusing on getting my fitness and my body in as good as shape as possible and making it something that is not negative.”
Brendan Kates, a senior on the men’s golf team, looks at this situation as a way to improve his fundamentals. He said it kind of gives him more chances to tweak some things that normally if he had a competition coming up he wouldn’t be able to do.
“You can make swing changes and do things that you’ve wanted to try,” Kates said. “For example, if you want to make a tweak in your swing in the season, it’s kind of hard because you might not feel comfortable in the tournament.”
The setback of not having a season in the fall is not affecting anyone.
“We can look at our season getting canceled as a blessing in disguise,” Donk said.
She said this gives the coaches and players four months to really dial in everything,
“This semester will give us a leg up on everyone to really show what we can do,” Donk said.