Canes Golf Excited to Open 2011 Fall Season
Sept. 10, 2011
CORAL GABLES, Fla.– The University of Miami golf team has high aspirations for this upcoming season, which is set to get underway this weekend in South Carolina. After two Top 5 tournament finishes a season ago – one being a tournament win – the Canes hope to build off their recent success under head coach Patti Rizzo.
In just her second season at UM, Rizzo continues to make her mark on a proud program. Last season, the team finished with a scoring average of 309.5. This year, Rizzo said she would like to see it somewhere between 289 and 292. Her high hopes are due in part to the addition of three talented freshmen joining the club this fall.
“I have three new freshmen that I am excited to see represent this program over the next four years,” Rizzo said. “Rika Park, who for the last four years trained at the Hank Haney Academy, has had an amazing amateur career already. She’s world renowned, won a lot of junior events, including one of the biggest junior events in Texas last summer. She is an amazing addition to the team.
“Leticia Ras-Anderica is a young player with an amazing game. She has also performed tremendously since joining the team. She was the top ranked amateur in Spain in Europe. And then we have Shannon Pak. She struggled a little last year, but she seems to be bringing it back now. I think she’s ready to work hard and keep up the new standards here.”
The team recently held its qualifiers for the Cougar Classic Tournament, which is scheduled to run from Sunday through Tuesday at Yeamans Hall Country Club in Hanahan, S.C. When it was all said and done, all three freshmen made the starting five.
Rizzo’s hope is that the freshmen will help push the other women to be better and motivate the entire team to accomplish their goals.
“When you get two or three excellent players that come on the team, it changes the entire attitude of everybody,” Rizzo said. “So far in the qualifying, we have had some really great scores, which has motivated the other girls to kind of pick it up a pace. Everybody seems to be very excited, very ambitious and working hard.”
The team also has one sophomore – Carina Cuculiza – and three seniors – Jennifer Hirano, Patricia Arana, and Diana Fisher. Hirano and Arana will join the three freshmen in the starting lineup this weekend and are expected to lead the team after injury-plagued 2010-2011 season. Arana, who is a transfer student from Kennesaw State, had a scoring average of 77.7 last year. Hirano has been one of the better golfers in this program in recent years, posting a career scoring average of 76.5.
“We have three new freshmen who are really good, so hopefully we’ll pick it up from the past years,” Hirano said. “I’m very, very excited for this upcoming year.”
And while Rizzo agrees the freshmen will be important, she also understands her upperclassmen, starting with Hirano, are just as key to her team’s success.
“Hirano will also be an extremely important part of this team,” Rizzo said. “Since I started here last year, Jennifer has proven to be a hard-working, dedicated student-athlete. She’s a fighter. She doesn’t give up and has done very well for the team.”
One thing that both Rizzo and Hirano see in this year’s team that is different than previous years is the drive of the team and the belief that they can compete at a high level.
“Now, everybody feels we can win,” Rizzo said. “We can go to events, we can win, we can definitely finish Top 2 or Top 3….somewhere near the top of the pack.”
Hirano agrees.
“Our players are motivated,” the veteran said. “There’s a lot more drive to succeed. We know we can play well.”
Hard work and dedication is a must in order to have success, but Rizzo also believes that team camaraderie is very important as well.
“We need to all be supportive and trust each other and really work together in motivating each other in a positive way. I think team camaraderie is very important for the success of a program. It gets everybody fired up and motivated.”
There is no doubt that this team has enough talent to compete at a high level. With a good balance of three seniors, one sophomore and three freshmen this year, the team looks to take another big step in the right direction.
The Canes have nine tournaments this season before the ACC Championship in April, including the Hurricane Invitational in March of 2012. It all starts this weekend in South Carolina, where season No. 2 of the Rizzo Era will get underway.
