Coming off a 10th place finish at last year's NCAA team championships, ASU women's golf is hoping its focus on team bonding on and off the course will help take them to the next level this season.
"We have a great group of girls," head coach Missy Farr-Kaye said. "They are very talented, very hard working and very accomplished already.
"They have got some great goals, and I'm just doing my best to give them all the tools to expose them to different things and making sure everything is ready to go and let them play."
Farr-Kaye is doing her best to prepare her players through individual meetings with each golfer on the team. These meetings may consist of anything from the golfer’s health, to what their class schedule is like, to even things as common as how much sleep they are getting at night.
"She's like not even just coach or a mentor or a role model, she is like a second mother to me," senior golfer Monica Vaughn said. "We all feel like we are her own kids."
After having been around the game of golf for essentially her entire life, and having over 16 years of coaching experience, Farr-Kaye is definitely open to new techniques and exercises. One of these new techniques, meditation, has helped keep the team on an even keel, according to Farr-Kaye.
“The stress that they’re under is immense. Much of it is self-induced,” Farr-Kaye said.
Every Friday, also known as "Fun Friday," each player and coach on the team participates in this meditation, in which no phones, or any other outside distractions, are allowed to be present.
The Sun Devils will only have one more "Fun Friday" left on their schedule before they begin their season. They'll head to Albuquerque for the Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational on Sept. 12.
“We’re going to be very strong this year,” Vaughn said. “With the strength of our team right now and what not, we’re just going to come out there with guns blazing and give it all we got."
Some of that strength Vaughn speaks of will be missing in ASU's first tournament of the year. Sophomore Linnea Strom and freshman Olivia Mehaffey won't make the trip to New Mexico, instead playing in the World Amateur Championships at that time. Strom will represent Sweden, while Mehaffey will tee it up for Ireland.
"I've really tried to do the preparations for this the best I can with my swing, putting and overall technique," Strom said. "I did that pretty much all summer with a Swedish trainer."
Vaughn, Strom and Mehaffey are all ranked within the top 20 of the women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings. With some of the world’s best golf talent at dispense for ASU women’s golf, expectations within the team are very high.
“Our main goal is win a national championship,” Vaughn said. “Our preseason ranking just came out and we're number two behind UCLA, and we 100 percent deserve to be there.”
Reach the reporter at thandlan@asu.edu or follow @Tyler_Handlan on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
