MILWAUKEE – While still fresh, and gaining its legs, the Mount Mary University golf team stepped up play again in their 2017 fall season. Scores across the lineup went down, and the drastic turnaround from Blue Angels scorecards from the start of the season to the end make the future look bright for MMU. A new coach, new players and multiple broken records are just a few of the highlights from this year's fall schedule.
The Blue Angels started off the 2017 season with a brand new coach at the helm. Rob Elliott took over the program right before the season began and quickly got the Blue Angel roster working on form and technique. With his PGA background and years of experience teaching youths, Elliot hit the ground running.
With the brief preseason, the Mount Mary University golf team responded to the tutelage in the first meet of the regular season with a win over their rival school, Alverno College. As she has become accustomed to, Jacqlyn Artman (So./Eldorado, Ill.) led the Blue Angels in that first dual match with a record setting 96-stroke finish at the Greenfield Park Golf Course.
As the fall season went on, the Blue Angels continued to show signs of progression. Although MMU did not come away with a first place team finish in the remainder of the fall schedule, the Blue Angels cut down their team score in every event following the second meet of the season.
The Blue Angels continued to work on their craft and knock away stroke after stroke in 18-hole play. In the third Mount Mary University Invitational of the season, the Blue Angels hosted rival Alverno in an epic dual at Currie Park Golf Course.
While the Inferno came away with the team victory by just six strokes, MMU saw four dramatic cuts in the respective season stroke averages. Artman demolished the school's previous record low for a round, set by herself earlier in the season, with an 86-stroke finish. An astonishing ten swings less than her previous record inspired play across the lineup.
Courtney Furlow (Jr./Appleton, Wis.) finished the round with a 115, nearly 12 strokes less than her season average at that point in the season. Furlow grabbed a par on hole No. 17 to help end her day on an even brighter note.
Teammate Haley Jacquez (So./Oakley, Calif.) also had a massive dip in her season average turning in a 118 against the Inferno. Jacquez impressed with a par on a 422-yard par-5 that opened up the bend.
Averaging near 147 in her first collegiate rounds, Kaylie Cook (Fr./Fairborn, Ohio) seemed honed-in as well. Cook finished with a 133 on the day.
Not satisfied with her efforts just two days prior, Cook set out to further whittle away at her average when the Blue Angels hosted the Carroll University Pioneers on Sept. 22 at CPGC. Cook collected two bogies and a mass of solid shots to finish her 18-hole round with a 121 against the Pioneers.
While Artman helped out with an 88 against the Pioneers, multiple Blue Angels turned in key cards to the Blue Angels tying their program's all-time team score low at 442. Jacquez finished the day with her best round of the season at 110. As Jacquez impressed MMU with her prowess on the softball diamond in the spring of 2017, Jacquez used her solid swing to shrink each and every par-5 hole. Jacquez never recorded over a double-bogey on any par-5 against the Pioneers.
Furlow finished her final back nine of the fall season with an impressive birdie on hole No. 13 on her way to a 124. Elaine Smith (So./Milwaukee, Wis.) tallied a 148 against the Pioneers to help round out one of the best team scores in school history.
Now the Blue Angels condition and wait for the snow to melt before they can finish their spring schedule. Stay tuned to mtmaryathletics.com for the updates and news for the Mount Mary University golf team.
