The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 5, 2005 - 13 Junior Christian Vozza has golfed well, but Michigan, as a team this season, has not. Blue struggling with consistency Wolverines excited about playing on home golf course By Sara Livingston Daily Sports Writer In one month from now, the No. 24 Michigan women's golf team will become the third Michigan team to host the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor this year. Ideally, the Wolverines should know every bunker, uneven green and narrow fairway of their course like the back of their hand. But because of weather constraints, the team hasn't played the course since last year. "Let's be realistic - we can't even get on our own golf course yet," coach Kathy Teichert said. "We haven't be able to hit balls outside on real grass yet, and we haven't been able to put off of a real surface. So the sooner we get on our course, the better." With the threat of losing on their home soil, the Wolverines are looking forward to practicing on their own course. At the same time, they will work on basic shots that they were unable to practice while training indoors. "We've been playing really well - especially since we haven't been playing outside a lot" senior Laura Olin said. "I think we are going to improve on those expectations in the weeks to come once we are able to play outside more." When they travel to warmer climates for tournaments, the Wolverines have used every opportunity possible to practice. Michigan has participated in four events in the last month, capitalizing on its course time to work on its wedge shots - something that is hard to practice indoors. "We are looking toward working on our short game because we aren't able to do that," Olin said. "We really need to get practice on our home course so that we can play well at Big Tens, and, as long as we work hard, we could probably win Big Tens." In order to ensure success at the Big Ten Championships, the Wolverines must perfect their play on the Alister MacKenzie designed course to milk the home- course advantage - which is always important in golf - for everything it's worth. While the team is led by Olin, who has three years of experience on Michigan's course, it's freshmen - who have only been playing on the course for a few months - don't quite know the course as well as they should, largely due to the inclement weather. "We are going to be honing in on playing our own golf course," Teichert said. "We need to play our course as much as we can so that we can figure out how the course is going to play for Big Tens. We need to figure out exactly what irons to use on all of the MEN'S GYMNASTICS By Mark Giannotto Daily Sports Writer Many a player and coach have said, "It's not the way you start, rather it's the way you finish." The Michigan men's golf team can take solace in this statement because the start of their spring season has gone about as bad as one could pos- sibly imagine. So far, the Wolverines have finished in the top half of the tournament field just once. Previously, Michigan had been pointing to the Furman Invitational as the starting point for its revival. In last season's Furman Invitational, the Wolverines turned their season around with an impressive third-place showing. But, their performance this year wasn't what they were looking for. Only one Michigan golfer, junior Christian Vozza, finished in the top- 20 individually, and the team finished 11th overall. Michigan's main problem has been consistency. Individuals have been able to shoot some good rounds of golf, but they have been unable to string these good rounds together for a whole tour- nament. Despite finishing 20th in the Furman Invitational, Vozza's play is a perfect example of this inconsistency. After starting the tournament with an impressive 69, he faltered in the sec- ond and third rounds posting scores of 77 and 74, respectively. "I am just not playing consistent golf," Vozza said. "It just seems like I have spurts where I am hitting the ball well and then there are those other times when I just do not have a good feel." Those problems from round to round indicate a larger concern for the Wolverines. The coaching staff believes that it is not necessarily a physical issue, and have rather begun focusing on the mental aspect of the game. "We've been meeting with a few of the guys on an individual basis to dis- cuss their mental toughness through- out tournaments," Michigan coach Andrew Sapp said. "We are really try- ing to get them to work better on their preparation." Part of this consistency issue can be blamed on the harsh Michigan winter. While teams from warmer climates are able to practice outside on actu- al golf courses, the Wolverines are forced to practice indoors at a driving range. "We've got a fragile confidence right now," Sapp said. "We haven't been able to play as many rounds as we would have liked - due to the weather. I think our confidence will rise now that we're getting some bet- ter weather." Because of their inability to prac- tice outdoors, the Wolverines have felt added pressure when playing in tournaments. These tournaments rep- resent the only time they get to play on a regular golf course. "There really has been a lot of pres- sure, at least competitive pressure, all the time and every round we have played in the spring," Vozza said. "Once we get out there on the course - hope- fully soon - and get a couple of rounds under our belts without that loaded pressure each time we tee it up, that will definitely help us out and even help get us back into a groove a little bit." After the disappointing 11th place finish last weekend, the Wolverines have three weeks off until they tee off in the Boilermaker Invitational on April 16. As the Ann Arbor weather improves, Michigan will finally be able to practice on its own golf course. The Wolverines are hoping this time off will jumpstart their season. F "IL"PHOTO Junior Brandi Zielinski and the rest of the women's golf team have been training indoors due to the harsh Michigan weather. holes, so, when the Big Ten Championships start, we'll be ready." In addition to preparing them physically, Teichert is mentally conditioning the team to maintain a positive mindset in between holes so that they don't carry a poor shot with them for the entire tournament. "We have to go into every tournament expecting to win and playing to win," Teichert said. "That is the only way that we can mentally prepare ourselves for everything, not for the smaller tournaments but for the long haul, which includes the Big Ten Champi- onships in a month. We are looking forward to winning the Big Tens, and, to do that, we have to prepare ourselves as much as we possibly can." M) preparing for NCAA Championships By Sara Livingston Daily Sports Writer At the Big Ten Championships two weeks ago, the No. 4 Michigan men's gymnastics team struggled to successfully dismount on 17 of its 36 routines. The Wolverines were just unable to find their balance once their feet hit the mat. "We have to work on our dis- mounts," senior Eddie Umphrey said. "We did great routines, and then we gave it all away on our dismounts. That's just embarrassing. You give the entire routine away on a dismount. We are going to get back in the gym and work on our dismounts and work hard so that we can win a national champi- onship." The Wolverines have had exactly seven days of practice to prove just how high their learning curve is before they head out to West Point, N.Y., for the NCAA Championships on Thursday. In that time, Michigan coach Kurt Golder has used the third- place finish at the Big Ten Champion- ships to motivate the team to focus on the little things during its training. As the team has seen, it's the little things that determine who stands on the top of the podium and walks out with the trophy. But Golder won't likely have to work too hard. The team is eager to redeem itself after its low stick per- centage at Big Tens. "We're really going to try to get more competitive within the team and get each other to work harder," junior Andre Hernandez said. "We are going to work on staying more focused, and (we're going to) crack down on perfecting all of our skills and routines and just being perfect because that's what matters at nation- als. Every tenth counts." And it was that low stick percentage that prohibited the Wolverines from defending their home turf. While No. 1 Ohio State was landing the major- ity of its routines, the Wolverines were struggling not to pull a Paul Hamm and fall into the judges' table. Despite their well performed exercises, many of the Wolverines ruined their entire routines on the dismounts, losing at times up to seven-tenths of a point. "When we hit our routines in com- petition, we usually have a pretty high stick percentage," Golder said. "However, to win a big competition, you really have to be on, and we just weren't. We showed ourselves that we were good enough that we could have won, but we just couldn't finish strong. And that killed us." At times, the Wolverines strug- gled to maintain form, failing to point their toes and hold strengths long enough while quickly moving from one position to the next. All of these little slip-ups caused point deductions and took away from what could have been near-perfect rou- tines. While Michigan recognized its past shortcomings, the question is whether it will seize this opportuni- ty to fine tune and ultimately perfect its routines or instead wait until next year. Golder is ready to make sure his team realizes the time is now and, come Sunday, will be ready to hoist up the NCAA trophy. "We have seven days of prepara- tion, and we have to work together as a team," Golder said. "We have to work on our landings and work for perfection. If they take everything that I talk about seriously for the next seven days it will make a tremendous difference, and, if they don't, we are just going to go (to NCAAs) and compete like so-so. And I know they don't want that." S: theby' STITUTE OF AR T othey LOtNDON. POSTGRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMMES MA DEGREES AND POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMAS SEMESTER OR YEAR ABROAD SUMMER STUDY IN LONDON summer at . . 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