Story by Jason Strickland, Sports Editor—

Jennies golf is headed to the Upper Iowa Invitational Sunday and Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, so graduate student Katie Threlkeld, who is from Washington, Iowa, will have extra support.

“It’s actually a hour and a half from home, so my mom and dad and little sister are going to get to come watch,” Threlkeld said.

She said she will enjoy having the encouragement and golfing tips during the tournament.

“Whenever I’m doing something wrong they can always tell me what to do to better my game,” Threlkeld said.

This is the second tournament of the spring for the Jens.

They finished fourth out of five teams at the Central Missouri Invite in Branson, Mo., March 11-12.

The first scheduled tournament was the William Jewell Invitational in Smithville, Mo., but it was cancelled because of weather.

The five MIAA schools that were going to compete in it ended up agreeing to play a tournament in Branson.

Head coach Chris Port said the weather has definitely had an impact on preparations.

“Their golf is where it should be in February, not April,” he said. “We should be hitting our peak right about now, and instead we are just kind of getting back to practicing everyday.”

The Jens will play on the Preserve on Rathbun Lake.

“It’s a links style course, which means there’s a lot of tall grass and stuff,” Threlkeld said. “So we are working on keeping it in the fairway.”

The course does not have many trees along the fairway and out of bounds is not as close to the fairway as it was in Branson, so Port said it should allow the team to be more comfortable.

“I think with this course up there, the way it’s set up, the girls will relax a little bit,” he said.

This is the next to last tournament before the MIAA Championships in Smithville, Mo., April 22-23.

“With missing an event, and the spring we’ve had, at this point we are building for the conference tournament,” Port said.

He said he wants the freshmen to get quality time on the course to help build the program.

“If my young players can all have a couple of good rounds between now and the conference tournament in competition, that’s what we want,” he said.

“We want them to have that good, solid experience in competition so that next year when we are playing more competitive they’re not, ‘Oh gosh, it’s a tournament.’”