DeKALB, Ill. – The format will be different, the playing partners familiar and travel protocols altered, but none of that will matter when the Northern Illinois University women's golf team tees off Monday in the BGSU Stroke Play Tournament in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. 
 
The season-opening event marks the Huskies' first competitive tournament in nearly a year after spring sports were suspended last March and the 2020 fall season was cancelled.
 
"Everyone is excited to get back to competition and play a real round of competitive golf," said NIU head coach Kim Kester, who is in her ninth season at the helm of the NIU program in 2020-21. "It's great to get a little bit of normalcy back, even with all the adjustments."
 
On the trip – from the airport to the rental cars to the hotel rooms and even on the course – the six Huskie competitors are split into two groups.  Newcomer Karen Liu (Taipei, Taiwan/Taipei Municipal Heping), second year freshman Jasmine Ly (Windsor, Ontario, Canada/Holy Names HS) and senior Caroline Klemp (Lansing, Kansas/St. James Academy/UMKC) make up Kester's group, while Associate Head Coach Andrew Frame will be alongside senior Lauren Ingle (Rochester Hills, Mich./Rochester Hills-Stoney Creek), junior Sofia Gomez Enriquez (Asunción, Paraguay/Montverde Academy) and sophomore Ahra Ko (Suwanee, Ga./North Gwinnett HS), who will play as an individual, for the duration of the trip.
 
"This will be the first time we've ever all played together in two groups during a competitive round," Kester said. "It's actually the first time I'll be able to see three girls play the entire tournament all the way through from start to finish so that's definitely different. We've basically separated ourselves into two 'pods' for the entire trip.  The challenge will be reminding everyone that it's competition because of the comfort level of playing with your teammates."
 
The field for the 54-hole event at the par 72, 6,068-yard Royal Lakes Course at the Lakewood Ranch Golf and Country Club includes eight of the nine Mid-American Conference teams, as well as Florida Gulf Coast, Illinois State and Morehead State. Teams will play two rounds on Monday with a single round on Tuesday, February 9.  
 
Leaving the single-digit temperatures of snow-covered Illinois for Florida and playing on grass for the first time in 2021 will be a welcome adjustment and one Kester expects the Huskies to make quickly.
 
"We'll play Saturday afternoon after we land and then Sunday's practice round and I think that will give us time to get out and adjust to the greens and Bermuda grass," she said.  "We're able to hit full swings in the Chessick [Practice Center] but putting – especially the longer putts – is the one thing we haven't been able to do.
 
"Five of our six players have seen this course before too which helps and Karen [Liu] is hitting the ball really well right now. The returners will try to make that round as easy as possible for her in her first collegiate event."
 
The addition of Liu and fellow newcomer Emily Romancew (Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada/Ecole Secondaire Des Sources) give NIU one of the deepest teams of her tenure, according to Kester. In 2019-20, the single season averages posted by Klemp (74.944), Ingle (75.3) and Ly (75.83) all rank in the NIU Top 10 all-time at second, fifth and tied for eighth, respectively. The career averages (minimum 60 rounds) of Ingle and Gomez Enriquez are second and sixth at NIU all-time.  
 
"I think this is the most depth we've ever had on the roster," she said.  "From top to bottom, it could be a different line-up every week. It will be hard to say who will travel." 
 
The BGSU Stroke Play event is the first of seven competitions, including the MAC Championships, on the Huskies' 2021 spring schedule.  Following the Florida event on Monday and Tuesday, NIU will return to competition on Sunday, February 28 at the Kiawah Island Classic on Kiawah Island, South Carolina.  In March, NIU heads to Nevada and Utah for the Jackrabbit Invitational and BYU Spring Classic, respectively. The Huskies compete in the EKU Colonial Classic in Richmond, Kentucky at the end of March and closer to home at the ISU Redbird Invitational in Normal, Illinois on April 9-10. 
 
The MAC Championships will be held at Silver Lake Country Club in Stow, Ohio on April 24-25, 2021.  
 
-- NIU --