Swinging for improvement

The IU women's golf team is heading into this weekend's Mary Fossum Invitational with an optimistic attitude despite its less-than-stellar performance in last week's Lady Northern Invitational.\nThe Hoosiers will look to improve on a 14th-place finish out of a 15-team field in the Lady Northern. \nLast weekend's performance aside, the Hoosiers feel good about their chances of improving their position this weekend. \n"We're not after a certain number, but we do expect to play better relative to what we have," IU coach Clint Wallman said. "I'm excited about the strong finish. We need to keep that momentum going." \nJunior Lissa Putnam echoed Wallman's sentiments for this weekend's tournament and hopes the squad's Sunday low round of 318 carries over to this weekend. \n"We don't have any result-oriented goals. We just have to play the game and keep improving," she said. "I think we can carry over our last round from last weekend and improve on the standard that we've set." \nDespite fielding a relatively young team, including only one senior, Wallman is confident that his team will continue to improve throughout the season. \n"With younger players, some playing in their first collegiate tournament (last week), there is always a bigger learning curve," he said. \nWallman and the team spent the week preparing for the tournament by working on areas of the game that they felt would help them score better this week. The Hoosiers worked on their short game and chips as well as hitting greens, senior Bethany Brunner said. \nAlso gaining much of their attention in practice this week was hitting greens in regulation and playing the par-5s better, which Wallman said would create greater scoring opportunities. \nThe Mary Fossum features a Big Ten oriented field, including No. 24-ranked Michigan State University on its home course. Other teams in the tournament include the University of Michigan, Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin among others. \nLast year, the Hoosiers placed ninth out of 16 teams after putting up a three-day total of 946 (310-312-324). Molly Redfearn was the top-scoring returning player in that event with a 238 (80-77-81), earning a 37th-place finish. \nThe lady Hoosiers begin competition at 7:30 a.m. Saturday at Forest Akers Golf Course. \nThe tournament continues at 7:30 a.m. Sunday with a shotgun start.\n-- Contact staff writer Jake Brown at jab1@indiana.edu.