Sticking With What’s Worked
May 18, 2023 | Women's Golf, Joel Coleman
Bulldogs not changing winning formula for NCAA Women’s Golf Championships.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – There's a saying. Dance with the one that brought you.
As Mississippi State women's golf gets set to compete for a national title beginning Friday at the NCAA Championships, the Bulldogs are adhering to the old adage and staying with the winning formula that's delivered them such a grand opportunity in the first place.
"What we've been doing all year has been working, so we're going to stick with the things that have been working for us from a practice standpoint, from a planning standpoint and from a mindset standpoint," head coach Charlie Ewing said.
If it's not broke, there's no need to fix it, and there's no denying everything has been in working order for the Bulldogs as they've paved their path to Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The season's results speak for themselves. The Dawgs have won four team championships this year, most recently capturing the school's first-ever NCAA Regional crown.
The collective success has been fueled by all the individual standouts on the State roster.
What more can even be said about Julia Lopez Ramirez at this point as she continues to put together one of the best careers in MSU history? She's this season's Southeastern Conference Player of the Year. She's won three individual championships, including the SEC championship. She's also recorded top-five finishes in nine different tournaments.
As good as Lopez Ramirez is, this group is so much more than one remarkably talented player. There's senior Hannah Levi, who goes into the NCAA Championships playing perhaps the best golf of her career. She's had three consecutive top-five finishes. Aside from Levi's play on the links, she's also provided leadership and a steady, veteran presence alongside fellow senior Abbey Daniel. Daniel has appeared in every event for MSU this season.
Then there are the young, shining stars – Izzy Pellot and Surapa Janthamunee. The duo became just the fifth and sixth MSU women's golfers to ever be selected to the All-SEC Freshman Team earlier this month.
It's already been a special year by any measure. Yet don't for a second think anyone in Maroon and White is satisfied.
"Our ultimate goal is to be the No. 1 team in the country by the end of [the NCAA Championships]," Ewing said. "We want to be the best version of this golf team we could possibly be. We know if we do a really good job of that, it'll give us a really good opportunity to be the last team standing."
Of course, the competition State's about to face will be the toughest MSU has seen all year. Such is the nature of the biggest NCAA golf tournament there is.
It's 30 of the country's best teams competing in what'll end up being nearly a week-long marathon of golf for those who last to the end. There'll be four rounds of stroke play with the field cut to 15 teams following the third round. After the fourth round, eight remaining squads advance to match play with quarterfinals and semifinals on Tuesday and the final on Wednesday. It'll be a grind.
"The way we look at it is, the longer the week is, the better the golf that you're playing," Ewing said. "If you're playing another round, that means you're earning it."
Making the task all the more difficult is a course that tests every part of each golfer's game.
"It's going to challenge every club in your bag and all that's going to do is identify the best teams at the end of the week, which is of course what you want for a championship," Ewing said.
Here's the thing about challenges. These Bulldogs have thrived when pushed. Now, on golf's grandest stage, they have the chance to make their biggest statement of all.
Mississippi State has battled. The Dawgs have earned this chance. Come 1:52 p.m. CT on Friday, it's go time.
"The work they've put in is obviously paying off," Ewing said. "Now they have the opportunity to compete for a national championship.
"Our biggest thing is that we know if we take care of our business and do our job and focus on ourselves, then we believe we're going to have a lot of tee times coming later on in the week and we'll have a long week, which is a really good thing."
