After winning Illinois Open, Welander returns for sophomore season

As sophomore Annika Welander stepped up to the tee on the 18th hole one stroke ahead of LPGA veteran Allison Finney on July 23, she could taste victory. Standing at nine under par in the Illinois Open, Welander was no longer intimidated by the fact that Finney had been playing golf professionally since before she herself was born. Maintaining her composure, Welander shot par for the hole to finish the tournament with a one-stroke lead and Finney still to shoot.

Welander looked on as Finney lined up for a 12-foot birdie putt that would send the tournament into a playoff hole. Finney missed the putt, rubber-stamping the upset that became one of the highlights of this 19-year-old's blossoming amateur golf career.

"It's weird because you feel like the little pipsqueak college girl coming in to play with these people who have been playing golf professionally as long as I have been alive," Welander said. "It was kind of cool to find that I could keep up with her mentally, too, and not crack under the pressure."

Far from veteran status, Welander has only been playing golf for seven years. No one in her family plays golf, so she had no exposure to the sport as a young child. It was not until the age of 12 that she took her first golf swing.

"I was actually on vacation, and I was pretty sick so I couldn't go swimming, so my mom decided to sign me up with golf lessons to get me to stop whining," Welander said.

Before playing golf, she devoted most of her time to competitive figure skating.

"You're pretty much isolated on ice for four hours a day," Welander said about her former sport. "In middle school I would go to the ice rink and skate during my lunch period. I decided that I should play golf because it's a far more social sport, and I don't have to be cold all the time."

Despite the sport's social aspect, Welander thrives on the individualistic aspect of golf. Unlike sports in which athletes are defended by another athlete or compete against another team, golfers merely compete against themselves.

"What I love about golf is that you have 72 complete actions that you have to prepare yourself for, and it's cool that you can be completely in control of your score," Welander said. "You're not passing, and no one's guarding you; you're completely self-reliant. You feel especially good when you hit a really good shot because you know you did everything right for that moment."

For Welander, going to the three-day tournaments over the course of the season is like taking five or six long weekend vacations with her best friends. Despite the individual nature of the sport, the Princeton team is still a very close-knit sorority-like group, there to support and comfort each other.

"If you have a bad round, you come off the golf course and you have your teammates waiting for you to give you a hug and to say something encouraging," Welander said. "It's almost as good as coming off the course playing a good round because they're there for you."

After being the only freshman starter during the spring 2005 season, Welander will continue to contribute and play a key role for the Tigers in future events. As she continues to develop her confidence, she expects to have more performances like that of the Illinois Open.

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"We're taking the mental side of the game much more seriously this year," Welander said. "Last year, I don't think it was as big a focus. Everyone on our team is so physically talented, but some of us, including myself, have issues with our mental game. When you get out there and you get tense, that's when you shank a ball. At our level of play, that's what we need the most work on."

Princeton will continue to work on its mental game this Saturday and Sunday at the Penn State Invitational.