The Fort Lauderdale Intercollegiate tournament is familiar territory for the team.(Flickr Creative Commons/T. Cowart)
After a spectacular first weekend back from break, UConn is headed to Fort Lauderdale to continue its spring season. After a long break from play, the team is getting back into the flow of things and the Fort Lauderdale Intercollegiate tournament is familiar territory for the team.
Last year, the team flew down there around the same time and performed well as they finished in seventh place. Although head coach Dave Pezzano wasn’t ecstatic about that performance, the performance of now senior Nabeel Khan stood out that day.
“He’s the two-time defending PGA National minority champion,” Pezzano said. “He has really had some amazing rounds for us and were excited to see what he can do this weekend.”
Last week, Pezzano was very pleased with the performances he saw and he knows that he can trust his team going forward.
“Our whole underclassmen group has done a really nice job, pushing their development forward,” Pezzano said.
Last week at the Loyola Intercollegiate Tournament, senior Nick Harrington put out the best performance of the team shooting six under par on Monday after struggling on Sunday. Pezzano said it was big for him to overcome his struggles and he knows he’s gonna have to be big this weekend.
“I was pretty impressed he bounced back after fighting some scoring demons on Sunday,” Pezzano said. “Me and coach were able to talk to him over the weekend and help him overcome that anxiety he had of having a low score.”
A problem that occurs often in collegiate sports is the long breaks teams go through from season to season. With the golf team, they play almost year round, but there is a break from November to late February. Pezzano said he has faith in his guys in staying ready and that his players are self-driven.
“Our guys do a lot of that work on their own,” Pezzano said. “Most of the team heads south to practice and a few of the guys played in tournaments over break.”
After the weekend in Fort Lauderdale, there is about a three-week break in between tournament play, so the team will have to make this one count.
Daniel Dashefsky is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached at daniel.dashefsky@uconn.edu.
