Eagles strive for consistency at Lander Lady Bearcat Invitational

On one hand, there have been struggles out of the gate that have left the Eagles in the bottom half of the standings in a pair of tournaments after day one.  But, at both the Smokey Mountain Intercollegiate and the Full Moon BBQ Invitational, Carson-Newman closed the events with the best rounds at the tournaments to rocket up the leaderboards.

In fact, the 297 that closed the SMI for the Eagles was just the second sub-300 round in school history.

Now Carson-Newman will try to put together two complete rounds of golf beginning Saturday at the Lander Lady Bearcat Invitational in Hilton Head, S.C.

“They have to get out of their own way,” Carson-Newman head women’s golf coach Suzanne Strudwick said. “They’re playing in fear and that they’re understanding the results before they come. They have to go out there and execute their shots, which they’re more than capable of and they’ve proved multiple times.

“They’ve proved that they’re good enough to be champions based on their second round performances.”

C-N is led by Meridith Hawkins, who’s averaged 75.8 strokes through four rounds of golf.  Carson-Newman also has Lauren Hodge, Mary Tunnell and Danielle Baiunco at its disposal.  Each member of the trio carries a 79 stroke average into the weekend.  However, Tunnell is hurt and has been replaced on the trip by Kelli Pemberton, who averaged 80 strokes a round at the Smokey Mountain Intercollegiate.

“The challenge to this is executing and being prepared for a shot right out of the gate,” Strudwick said. “We don’t need to try to steer the ball.  We just need to go out and hit the ball as hard as we can.  That way we’re not performing defensive.”

The Eagles tee off at 8:50 Saturday morning.