New assistant golf coach, former player, helps team win
Despite the graduation of two-time Division III player of the year, Katie Tewell, junior Natalie Daugherty said she believes the women’s golf team has what it takes to return to the national championship.
“I think we have a pretty good chance to make nationals because of how many shots we cut off from [last years scores], and what the freshmen are shooting this year,” Daugherty said.
Last May, the team qualified for nationals for the first time since 2001. It finished 19th. Tewell was tied for second.
On a team of 11, the women are all averaging scores less than 100, said second-year head golf coach Roger Lundy.
That consistency, comprised of returning players lowering their scores and a strong crop of freshmen, have led the team to shoot around the same average as last year. Daugherty, the team’s No. 1 player, took three shots off her average from last season, and a total of 16 strokes since her arrival at Franklin, Lundy said.
Another player Lundy singled out was sophomore Samantha Marshall. She’s cut seven strokes off last year’s average, he said.
Lundy said he knew the season would be different without Tewell as a player, but his team is accomplishing what he, and it, hoped it would.
“The group of girls we have now work hard they all want to do well… they knew they had to do it and that’s what they’ve done,” Lundy said. “…Losing Katie Tewell, I don’t think you replace her. You don’t replace the best player in the country unless you get the second best.”
But the team is even doing slightly better team-wise than last year, said junior Grace Adams.
“We are all shooting under the average that we were last year and that was with Katie,” she said.
Daugherty said it is difficult to gauge where the team is compared to last season besides shooting around the same average team score as last season, and that Franklin is not winning the individual medalists awards that belonged to Tewell last year.
Tewell said it was important for the team to aim for the same team score as last year because it would show improvement.
But, the team is still beating its conference opponents. The winner of the HCAC receives an automatic bid to the national championships, a title Franklin won by 40 strokes last season.
Adams said, “Every tournament that we’ve gone to I think we’ve beaten everyone in conference.”
Both Adams and Daugherty agreed Tewell’s presence is beneficial to the team, especially since she’s helped transition the team’s seven freshmen this year.
“Katie is one of the reasons they came to Franklin,” Daugherty said.
Tewell, who was an All-American during her three years at Franklin and plans to attempt to qualify for the LPGA tour next year, said she came back to coach to repay the three years she had at the school. She said she’s had a great coaching experience.
“So far it has been awesome and the experience I have had so far has been absolutely heartwarming,” she said.
The golf team plays in the conference tournament this weekend at Rose-Hulman.
