Patient Engineers going to D-III golf tournament next week

May 6—Kevin Robinson remembers 2010, his first season as the Rose-Hulman women's golf coach, when he inherited only three returnees from 2009.

College golf teams require at least five athletes to compete, so Robinson searched and searched until he found two freshmen who had played in high school to round out his inaugural squad.

Since then, the Engineers have continued to improve. They finally captured their first Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference title — beating runner-up Transylvania by 39 strokes in October 2019 at Bluffton, Ohio — and qualified for the NCAA Division III tournament. That was scheduled for May 2020 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

You know what happened next, right? COVID-19 — which has caused close to 600,000 deaths in this country alone — became so scary that the NCAA announced in mid-March it was canceling all of its remaining 2020 winter and spring sports at all levels.

Not surprisingly, Robinson and his golfers were devastated. Three seniors from that team — Namuunaa Nadmid, Rebecca Su and Ashley Braaksma — graduated without getting to compete in the Division III nationals.

Although COVID-19 is far from gone, the NCAA allowed most sports to resume under strict guidelines for the 2020-21 seasons. Also, the HCAC decided to conduct its women's golf season in the spring instead of fall, with Rose winning again, this time by 86 strokes over second-place Hanover on April 23-25 at Harrison, Ohio.

Thanks to that victory, the Engineers will represent the HCAC at the Division III tournament at Forest Akers Golf Courses in Lansing, Mich., starting next Tuesday.

This time, they really are going, even if it's not to Florida.

----Rose-Hulman golfers swept the top five positions at the 2021 HCAC women's championships. Sophomore transfer Precious Saelee won medalist honors and leads the team with a scoring average of 80.27 strokes per round this season.

Neha Vinesh, one of three freshmen in the Engineers' starting lineup, earned HCAC Newcomer of the Year honors after a second-place finish at the league championships. She averages 83.44 strokes per round.

Freshman Wynne Aldrich came home third, senior Lauren Conley placed fourth and freshman Svarnika Bommakanti completed the Rose sweep. Aldrich averages 83.55, Conley stands at 84.55 and Bommakanti scores 83.36 for the season.

Robinson also was named HCAC Women's Golf Coach of the Year. The Engineers entered the NCAA Division III top-25 rankings for the first time in program history after the HCAC championships.

Saelee, who's from Walnut, Calif., wasn't sure what to expect this season . . . until she played a few tournaments with her new teammates and noticed how good they are.

"I'm very happy here," Saelee told the Tribune-Star this week, adding that she's been working on her course management — successfully — all season.

An electrical-engineering major, Saelee modestly described her putting skills as "fairly good." Her goal for next week is "just to play the best I can and to beat my personal-best score, which is a 70 [over 18 holes]."

Meanwhile, Conley still feels bad for the three seniors who didn't get to compete in the Division III tournament because last season. But she's received texts and calls of congratulations from them and other members of past Rose women's golf squads for this season, which put a big smile on her face.

"At first [after learning NCAA events were called off last spring], it was pretty hard to understand, especially when we really didn't grasp the magnitude of the pandemic," Conley said. "I know our seniors last year, they were really hurt. . . . But as time went on, we realized it was definitely the right call."

Fast forward to this season and Conley acknowledged how excited she has been for her team to duplicate — and exceed the margin of victory — at the 2021 HCAC tournament, especially now that she's a senior (majoring in civil engineering).

"It's hard to put into words how much it means to me, especially after it got taken from us last year," Conley mentioned about the upcoming NCAA trip.

"As a team, I'm hoping everyone plays comfortable and plays confident. I have full confidence that we can be in the top 15 for next Friday [May 14]."

----Explaining Conley's last statement, Rose-Hulman has been awarded position number 13 in the field that includes 25 teams. The Engineers will begin play on the first tee Tuesday, with the first tee time at 1:40 p.m. Round 2 will take place next Wednesday and Rose will start on the 10th tee with the first tee time at 9:40 a.m. Round 3 tee times are based on the standings after Round 2, so they will be announced after the completion of 36 holes.

The top 15 teams and top six individuals outside those 15 teams will qualify for Round 4 at Forest Akers on May 14. Tee times will be determined by standings order after the completion of Round 3.

Learning these specific details has been drastically and pleasantly different for Robinson compared to his post-HCAC experiences last season.

"It was a little bit of gut punch," he said of the Division III tournament cancellation a year ago. "It was really disappointing for our seniors who were an integral part of last year's team. . . . It was a little bittersweet because I know how much effort and sacrifice went into it for them.

"I don't think people really understand what a sacrifice it is to be a student-athlete at Rose-Hulman. It really takes a lot of discipline on their part. The academics here are very, very challenging. For us to be able to compete at such a high level really says a lot about the quality of our kids."

With a nice mix of returning talent — such as Conley — and "a really incredible freshman class," Robinson figured the 2021 Engineers would be formidable.

"It took us a little while to get going this spring," he pointed out. "We didn't play all that well right out of the gate. But once we really hit our stride and the kids got their competitive juices flowing, we really played well. We shattered some [school] records. . . . I think we're really entering the [Division III] tournament on a high note."

The 50-year-old Robinson, a PGA member who also serves as a Rose assistant women's basketball coach, believes his female golfers can crack the top 10 next week, if everything goes right.

"I think I have multiple girls who are capable of finishing individually in the top 10," he added. "The kids are certainly excited about it and ready to go."

Rose-Hulman entered last weekend ranked No. 24 nationally by Golfstat among more than 170 teams that have competed in NCAA Division III women's golf this season.