FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (October 2, 2020) – The fall semester has presented challenges for the Northern Arizona golf team, and not because their annual fall season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Currently, the Lumberjacks have only four of their eight golfers in Flagstaff with the other half remaining in Europe for the fall. Head coach
Brad Bedortha anticipates a full roster come the spring, when the 'Jacks hope to get their championship season under way, pandemic permitting.
Still, Bedortha and the team has been hard at work this fall both on the course and virtually in preparation for the upcoming spring tournament schedule.
"We've had some really good practices and we've been able to spend more time individually which is nice," Bedortha said. "We've been doing a lot of extra work with our VISION54 items that we've been instilling and reinforcing. With the COVID situation, the golf course accessibility has been challenging, but we've been working around that and a lot of the courses have been great to us."
The Lumberjacks have been utilizing Flagstaff Ranch Golf Club and Pinewood Country Club among a few local courses for practices thus far this semester. With senior
Sara Padilla, junior
Ashley Croft and sophomores
Alyza Flores and
Lorel Hayward in the fold, Bedortha has slowly started to implement competitive practices.
"It's nice to have four golfers back so you can have some competitions and teams of two to make it a bit more challenging," Bedortha said. "There's situations we can't control – we can't control that four of our girls aren't here. But at the end of the day, we're making the best of it from a competition practice standpoint."
From a competition standpoint, the Lumberjacks' golfers abroad may not be training with the team, but they have been making noise nonetheless. Juniors
Aleksandra Chekalina and
Elle Kocourkova, graduate student
Klara Kucharova and freshman
Ekaterina Malakhova have all been competing in tournaments in Russia and Czech Republic. In recent weeks, both Kocourkova and Malakhova each claimed medalist honors.
Off the golf course, the 'Jacks have remained connected through weekly Zoom meetings. Joining their team meetings has been Brian Cain, their mental performance coach, who has helped them create a new team vision and core principles.
"We're getting a connection on a different level that isn't related to golf. That's been really nice," Bedortha said.
