FARGO — In recent tournaments, the North Dakota State women’s golf team has battled myriad course conditions.
That changed when the team arrived in Arizona for the Bell Bank “Pay It Forward” Collegiate at Wigwam Golf Club’s Blue course last week.
“We went to Florida and froze to death and played in really strong wind and then we had a couple trips to California that had some strong winds also, and even going back to last fall, we just played a lot of really difficult golf courses,” Bison head coach Matt Johnson said. “I think this was the first time we’ve played a course where we didn’t have any wind to contend with. We had a lot of heat.”
But NDSU brought the heat too.
It was a record-setting tournament for the Bison, who handled the 100-degree temps by firing the team’s lowest 54-hole tournament score by 18 shots. NDSU finished with a 10-under 842 to finish fourth. The University of South Florida won by 10 shots at 26-under.
“So for us to go out there and play how we did was really cool,” senior Madi Hicks said. “Especially in this tournament, coming into it, our team was ranking towards the bottom half of the field, so to go out there and prove to everyone that we can play like this and we were ready for it, it was really cool.”
Hicks played 17 of her 54 holes under par to post a second-place finish at 8-under 205, one shot behind USF’s Regina Plascencia. Hicks finished her final round going birdie-birdie-eagle.
“It was a ton of fun,” said Hicks, whose 205 is now the lowest 54-hole individual score at NDSU. “It was nice to be at this tournament that we were at because the three previous tournaments were in pretty tough conditions at some pretty difficult courses.”
Hicks shot a collegiate-best 67 during the first round, one shy of her personal low of 66 she had during her high school years. Hicks finished the tournament with a pair of 69s. Not to be outdone, sophomore Avery Bartels of Oxbow, North Dakota, also fired three sub-par rounds (70-69-70) to finish in a tie for seventh at 4-under 209.
North Dakota State senior Madi Hicks said she’s put an emphasis on her par-saving putts.
Zach Lucy / NDSU Athletics
Hicks had two double bogeys in her final round on the par-71 course, one coming when she found the water on the 110-yard 15th hole. On her eagle to finish, she hit driver that she said “had some roll on it,” and a 6-iron to 8 feet on the 514-yard, par-5 18th.
Johnson said this may be Hicks’ most consistent season, which is saying a lot since she’s had scoring averages of 75.6, 74.7 and 74.96 her first three seasons. Johnson also said Hicks can also bounce back faster than in previous seasons.
Credit assistant coach Jake Nystrom.
“She’ll ask Jake to walk a hole or two with her and when they do that, they almost always get it back on track,” Johnson said.
Hicks comes from a golfing family. Her father Gary played at Iowa State and her older brother Ben played at South Dakota. After a stellar career at Chanhassen (Minn.) High, Hicks credits her brother for preparing her for the college game.
“I knew that he had the experiences I would end up having when I would finally get to college, so I kind of would just pick his brain and just try to go to the golf course with him as much as I could,” she said.
That played a part in Hicks recording the lowest scoring average among freshmen in the Summit League.
“She wasn’t really like the typical freshman,” Johnson said. “She had some things already figured out.”
While Hicks averages about 240 yards off the tee, her putter dictates how low she’ll go. She’s put emphasis on her par-saving putts, which in turn helps build confidence to go at her makeable birdie attempts.
“So I feel like that is a strong part of my game and then when we have a week like we just had, I’m seeing some of those putts roll in from 15-ish feet for birdie and that just kind of gets the round going a little bit.”
Every Bison player shot at least one round at par or better at Wigwam. Cora Larson finished at 2-over 215 with Jeri Lafleche and Norah Roberts at 4-over 217. Hannah Dunk, competing independently, was right behind at 5-over, all finishing in the top 36.
“Everyone kind of performed at or above the level they’ve been all season, and that’s kind of what you try to do towards the end of the year is get to a point where everyone performs well and is is playing at a high level,” Johnson said, “and when you can do that, you can do some pretty fun things. So it was a great week.”