A par 72, 6,194-yard golf course is where the Marshall women’s golf team is set to travel to the sunshine state of Fort Myers, Florida, to compete in the C-USA 2019 Air Force Reserve Women’s Golf Championship next week, April 15-17 at the Verandah Club. The matches are to tee off at 8 a.m. each day of the tournament.

Marshall third-year head coach Brooke Burkhammer said that the team has had steady results on the green this season.

“I think our main goal is to keep the consistency,” Burkhammer said. “We’re a pretty young team. We only have one senior (Ylva Forslund) and one junior (Shelby Brauckmuller). We have two sophomores (Kerri Parks and Stormy Randazzo) and one freshman (Jackie Schmidt). So, we’re pretty young and most of us have played this golf course and only one of us (Schmidt) haven’t.”

Last season the Herd finished tenth out of 12 teams at the championship and now current sophomore Kerri Parks tied for eleventh in the individual standings.

“You can’t win a tournament in the first round, but you can lose it,” Burkhammer said. “You can’t win it if you don’t play well in the first round. I’m hoping we can start out strong on the first round and have some good scores like we always have and then work our way to the second round, and then finish up with a good one to hopefully not end our year. Hopefully, we can win.”

Throughout the 2018-2019 season, the team has had two Conference USA women’s golfers of the week featuring Brauckmuller and Parks.

“I think the main goal is to let them know that if we don’t win, our season is over,” Burkhammer said. “This has the possibility to be Ylva’s last event. I know she doesn’t want that. Our conference is pretty competitive right now. We’re all pretty competitive.”

To recap the entire season, the Herd finished second out of eight teams at the Roseann Schwartz Invitational, first out of 12 teams at the William & Mary Invitational, ninth out of 12 at The Princess Anne Invitational, second out of 9 teams at the Maryb S. Kauth Invitational, tied twelfth out of 18 teams at the Palmetto Intercollegiate, third out of 16 teams at the Amelia Island Collegiate, tied for sixth out of 15 teams (day two cancelled), second out of 12 teams at the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate, and sixth out of 14 teams at the Memphis Women’s Intercollegiate.

Burkhammer said the team has not only improved golf-wise but also team chemistry-wise.

“On a team aspect or growing up off the golf course, we have done a lot of that,” Burkhammer said. “I see these girls get along really well, and that’s something really big, not in just a golf standpoint. That’s a big step. They’ve taught me a lot, and I’ve just seen a lot of their game bloom.”

Taylor Huddleston can be contacted at [email protected].