Northwestern University Athletics
Fletcher Previews East Lake Cup With Golf Channel
10/27/2017 3:22:00 PM | Women's Golf
EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern will compete in the prestigious East Lake Cup next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, in Atlanta. On Thursday, head coach Emily Fletcher participated in a media conference call in advance of the event.
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STEVE BURKOWSKI: Speaking of Northwestern, head coach Emily Fletcher. You've been there for a decade, a couple years ago fighting to get into match play at Oregon, and then the breakthrough last year, coming so close. How have you been able to put this program on the national map in the time you've been in Evanston?
EMILY FLETCHER: Well, thanks for having us on. I appreciate it. I think it's really just been a culmination. There wasn't any one year that turned the page emphatically for us. It's just been something we've been building on kind of specifically in the last five years. We've really made some headway toward making our way into that match play. But I think it's really been a process, a decision that our director of golf, coach Pat Goss, had for us when Beth Miller and I came on board, and it's been slow and steady, our progress. Last year I think that our players certainly built on the experience that they had had the previous two or three years, and they were settled in, and I think they were a bit more comfortable with the competition, the stroke play leading into the match play. We did a better job preparing our players for match play. I think kind of all of those things led to our success, and it certainly was a process over a number of years.
BURKOWSKI: Coming so close a year ago, and you just shared with us the fact that this has been sort of a slow and steady progress to the national scene over the past decade. What opportunity awaits you here in Atlanta in a few days that can maybe be a building block, that next step to prepare you for the NCAA Championships come May?
FLETCHER: It's interesting listening to (Illinois men's golf) Coach (Mike) Small and just how he described the event and how it's shaped his program. I think that those are some of the same thoughts that we had. It's going to allow us to compete on another level over-and-above a regular-season event and with all the coverage that you all bring with the Golf Channel, and the exposure, and playing a championship course like East Lake and all of the history and legacy behind that. I just think it's a great opportunity for us, for the exposure of our program and our players and for them to experience all the spoils that that brings with it. I know that one of the things that was a takeaway from last year is that our players really -- they didn't have any expectation of the spoils of really getting in the mix there and making it to the championship match. Now having been there, I think that in so many ways they've built off of that in a positive manner. Things that they thought were going to be -- create more pressure and maybe some angst and a little bit of anxiety. After being there, they actually were energized by that, and it was a building block. So I think that with us having four of our five returning from that NCAA Championships run, they're looking forward to this week with lots of energy and feeling really positive about it. They're not bringing any sort of expectation or stress. I think they're seeing it as an opportunity, and I think that that's -- and I'm even enticed even more after hearing Coach Small and his comments about how his program has been able to build off of it. I think that our players are really excited to get down there, and I'm excited to see them test it again in some challenging conditions in stroke play and match play.
BURKOWSKI: Emily, what have you seen from your team this fall that leads you to believe they can end this season here in 2017 and on that positive note as you build ahead to the next year?
FLETCHER: We've had good contributions one-to-five, which is sort of similar to what we started to see in the spring last year. One of the great strengths of our team is that one-through-five anybody can step up and lead this team at any given event, and we've seen that basically over our first four events this fall. We stumbled a little bit at our own home event at Northmoor Country Club, but that was a good test for us. The conditions were very good, greens were quick. We're coming off of Poppy Hills last week, we had a good showing there. Slipped up a little bit that first day, but really hung with the field the next two days. We saw Stanford and UCLA out there at Poppy Hills at the Stanford Intercollegiate, so we're looking forward to seeing Stanford this coming week, and we've seen Arizona State. The only team we haven't seen that's going to be at East Lake next week is USC, we haven't seen them yet this fall. But feel good about our group, extending our season by a couple of weeks. Our girls are excited to play. We've had a really great fall here in the Chicago area with regard to weather, so we feel like we've had really good preparation, and exposed our kids to some courses in the area that might mirror some of the conditions that we'd see at East Lake.
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The 2017 East Lake Cup will feature the eight semifinalists from the 2017 NCAA Division I men's and women's golf national championships earlier this year. In addition to Fletcher's Wildcats, the women's division will feature reigning national champion Arizona State University, 2015 national champions Stanford University and the University of Southern California (USC).
The East Lake Cup will be contested over three days, following the format from the NCAA men's and women's golf national championships. On Monday, Oct. 30, the eight teams will compete in individual stroke play competition to determine the individual champion and to seed for two days of match-play competition. Tuesday-Wednesday, Nov. Oct. 31-Nov. 1, two match-play tournaments will be hosted simultaneously for the men's and women's divisions, with the semifinals taking place on Tuesday and the finals and consolation matches on Wednesday.
Located in Atlanta, the East Lake Golf Club is the home course of legendary golfer Bobby Jones and is the oldest golf course in the city of Atlanta. The Club is not only historic, but philanthropic as well. Proceeds from operations support the East Lake Foundation, now serving as a national model for holistic community redevelopment across the country through Purpose Built Communities.
Over the years, the golf course has hosted many national and regional championships, including the 1950 U.S. Women's Amateur, 1963 Ryder Cup, and 2001 U.S. Men's Amateur. It is now the permanent home of the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola, the culminating event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedEx Cup.
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STEVE BURKOWSKI: Speaking of Northwestern, head coach Emily Fletcher. You've been there for a decade, a couple years ago fighting to get into match play at Oregon, and then the breakthrough last year, coming so close. How have you been able to put this program on the national map in the time you've been in Evanston?
EMILY FLETCHER: Well, thanks for having us on. I appreciate it. I think it's really just been a culmination. There wasn't any one year that turned the page emphatically for us. It's just been something we've been building on kind of specifically in the last five years. We've really made some headway toward making our way into that match play. But I think it's really been a process, a decision that our director of golf, coach Pat Goss, had for us when Beth Miller and I came on board, and it's been slow and steady, our progress. Last year I think that our players certainly built on the experience that they had had the previous two or three years, and they were settled in, and I think they were a bit more comfortable with the competition, the stroke play leading into the match play. We did a better job preparing our players for match play. I think kind of all of those things led to our success, and it certainly was a process over a number of years.
BURKOWSKI: Coming so close a year ago, and you just shared with us the fact that this has been sort of a slow and steady progress to the national scene over the past decade. What opportunity awaits you here in Atlanta in a few days that can maybe be a building block, that next step to prepare you for the NCAA Championships come May?
FLETCHER: It's interesting listening to (Illinois men's golf) Coach (Mike) Small and just how he described the event and how it's shaped his program. I think that those are some of the same thoughts that we had. It's going to allow us to compete on another level over-and-above a regular-season event and with all the coverage that you all bring with the Golf Channel, and the exposure, and playing a championship course like East Lake and all of the history and legacy behind that. I just think it's a great opportunity for us, for the exposure of our program and our players and for them to experience all the spoils that that brings with it. I know that one of the things that was a takeaway from last year is that our players really -- they didn't have any expectation of the spoils of really getting in the mix there and making it to the championship match. Now having been there, I think that in so many ways they've built off of that in a positive manner. Things that they thought were going to be -- create more pressure and maybe some angst and a little bit of anxiety. After being there, they actually were energized by that, and it was a building block. So I think that with us having four of our five returning from that NCAA Championships run, they're looking forward to this week with lots of energy and feeling really positive about it. They're not bringing any sort of expectation or stress. I think they're seeing it as an opportunity, and I think that that's -- and I'm even enticed even more after hearing Coach Small and his comments about how his program has been able to build off of it. I think that our players are really excited to get down there, and I'm excited to see them test it again in some challenging conditions in stroke play and match play.
BURKOWSKI: Emily, what have you seen from your team this fall that leads you to believe they can end this season here in 2017 and on that positive note as you build ahead to the next year?
FLETCHER: We've had good contributions one-to-five, which is sort of similar to what we started to see in the spring last year. One of the great strengths of our team is that one-through-five anybody can step up and lead this team at any given event, and we've seen that basically over our first four events this fall. We stumbled a little bit at our own home event at Northmoor Country Club, but that was a good test for us. The conditions were very good, greens were quick. We're coming off of Poppy Hills last week, we had a good showing there. Slipped up a little bit that first day, but really hung with the field the next two days. We saw Stanford and UCLA out there at Poppy Hills at the Stanford Intercollegiate, so we're looking forward to seeing Stanford this coming week, and we've seen Arizona State. The only team we haven't seen that's going to be at East Lake next week is USC, we haven't seen them yet this fall. But feel good about our group, extending our season by a couple of weeks. Our girls are excited to play. We've had a really great fall here in the Chicago area with regard to weather, so we feel like we've had really good preparation, and exposed our kids to some courses in the area that might mirror some of the conditions that we'd see at East Lake.
*********
The 2017 East Lake Cup will feature the eight semifinalists from the 2017 NCAA Division I men's and women's golf national championships earlier this year. In addition to Fletcher's Wildcats, the women's division will feature reigning national champion Arizona State University, 2015 national champions Stanford University and the University of Southern California (USC).
The East Lake Cup will be contested over three days, following the format from the NCAA men's and women's golf national championships. On Monday, Oct. 30, the eight teams will compete in individual stroke play competition to determine the individual champion and to seed for two days of match-play competition. Tuesday-Wednesday, Nov. Oct. 31-Nov. 1, two match-play tournaments will be hosted simultaneously for the men's and women's divisions, with the semifinals taking place on Tuesday and the finals and consolation matches on Wednesday.
Located in Atlanta, the East Lake Golf Club is the home course of legendary golfer Bobby Jones and is the oldest golf course in the city of Atlanta. The Club is not only historic, but philanthropic as well. Proceeds from operations support the East Lake Foundation, now serving as a national model for holistic community redevelopment across the country through Purpose Built Communities.
Over the years, the golf course has hosted many national and regional championships, including the 1950 U.S. Women's Amateur, 1963 Ryder Cup, and 2001 U.S. Men's Amateur. It is now the permanent home of the TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola, the culminating event of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedEx Cup.
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