The Hawkeye women’s golf team will kick off the season Sept. 12-13 by hosting the Diane Thomason Invitational.

By Ian Murphy and Jordan Hansen
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There are reasons to be optimistic about the Iowa women’s golf team.

The team graduated just two seniors from a season ago, which did not, naturally, include sophomore Elisa Suarez.

She carried the bulk of the weight for the team last season, posting the team’s best average score, 76.4, and tied with senior Amy Ihm for the second-best round score, shooting a 70.

She also posted four rounds at par or below last season in the 29 rounds she played.

Suarez will have help from fellow sophomore Jessica Ip, who played 32 rounds a season ago and placed sixth in the summer at the Canadian Girls Junior Championships, in which she led through two rounds.

Sophomore Morgan Kukla also impressed people during the summer, finishing 14th in the 21st-Annual Illinois Women’s Open. That wsn’t her only solid outing of the summer; she picked up a win at the Lake County Amateur.

The team was also represented by a number of golfers in the Meijer LPGA Collegiate Invitational — Ihm, junior Jessica Sindlinger, and Ip.

Iowa will have a few new faces on the staff this season; new assistant coach Michael Roters was hired after last season. Roters, previously the assistant golf coach at Idaho, became a professional golfer in 2007 and competed in a number of events on the Canadian Tour.

Roters won’t be the only new person on the Iowa staff; LPGA Future Tours member Kirby Dreher was recently named a volunteer assistant coach. She has experience in a number of major events, including the U.S. Women’s Open and the Canadian Women’s Open.

Iowa will also bring on promising freshman Kristin Glesne, who was the 2013-14 Texas Junior golf player of the year.

Despite the promising youngsters and fresh coaching blood, however, the Hawkeyes do have work to do.

Iowa posted its only top-10 finish of the season at last season’s Diane Thomason Invitational, finishing second of 13 teams.

The high point outside of that was a pair of sixth-place team finishes, and the season was bookended with a 10th-place finish at the Big Ten Tournament. Singlinger led the team at the tournament, placing 32nd.

In fact, the team has not finished better than ninth in the Big Ten Tournament since the 2008-09 season, when they finished fifth.

The Hawkeyes’ schedule has one home date this season, the Thomason Invitational on Sept. 12-13. The Hawkeyes’ season is also split up because of winter; after the Oct. 12-13 Pinehurst Challenge, they will not play again until February.

The complete schedule could end up being rather brutal, because they will play events in 11 different states.

Iowa will likely have to rely on its young guns to carry the weight, as they did a season ago.

There is room to improve, that much is clear, but the Hawkeyes have the pieces in place to do so.

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