Last summer, junior Annika Welander of the women's golf team took on an accomplished field, including an LPGA tour pro, and defeated everyone to win the Illinois Women's Open. This summer, however, Welander faced an even more intimidating opponent – the language barrier.
Selected to join a team of the most talented collegiate female golfers in the country, Welander and nine others traveled throughout Asia on a month-long goodwill tour sponsored by the NCAA. While visiting such countries as Korea, Japan and China, the all-star team played a variety of events, including corporate tournaments and exhibitions.
Not only were the destinations diverse, but so too were the nationalities of the girls on the team. Though about half of the group was American, the team also included a Swede, an Argentinean, a Canadian and a Korean. Despite the travel complications and the flurry of passports and visas at each new customs checkpoint, Welander said that she enjoyed meeting and playing with the different women.
"I respect the amount of time and devotion they give to golf," she said, noting that many of her fellow teammates were hoping to pursue a professional golf career once finishing college, whereas she harbors no such ambitions.
A different kind of golf
Before beginning their professional careers or returning to college competition, however, all the players shared the common bond of experiencing the best golf courses Asia had to offer – or rather, uncommon bond, considering how unusual "the best golf courses" can be.
Welander described one such course in South Korea as being "plastered on the side of a mountain," literally. If someone shanked a ball out of bounds, there was no retrieving it, since it oftentimes lay 100 yards below the green.
To accommodate this treacherous system, the normal fleet of golf carts had been abandoned. Instead, the caddies – normally older women – would jog alongside of a series of bag-carrying bins transported via monorail. Beyond the monorail system, the course was even more mechanized with moving sidewalks to assist in ascending very steep hills.
Living the life
Welander and her teammates had fun off the course, as well. During one memorable evening in Seoul, Welander and a teammate won a dance-off competition, beating out many other Korean dancers. With a laugh, Welander called the win "a highlight of my trip."
Another climax of the tour was celebrating the Fourth of July on the Atsugi Naval Base outside of Tokyo, Japan. Gathering with servicemen, many of whom were the same age as the women on the team, the players held a good old-fashioned American barbeque and were able to learn more about the lives of their peers in the Navy. Welander said that she gained " a lot of respect for what they [the servicemen] do," and was glad to later play some rounds with many of these same men.
Impact on the future
Now back at Princeton, Welander is ready and eager to play for the Tigers. While she didn't repeat her win at the Illinois Open this summer, she still gained the invaluable experience of playing in a truly foreign environment.
One positive effect on her game, she said, comes, surprisingly, from the lack of pure practice time she had on the tour. At home, she practices about 70 percent of the time, playing games only during tournaments. This summer, "we would eat a huge Asian breakfast and then be thrown out onto the course with a bunch of Japanese businessmen," she said. Mentally, she had to be prepared to play as soon as she came to the course – a priceless skill back on the college front.
Her coach, for one, believes that her travels will only improve her quality of play back in the States. Head coach Amy Bond said in an email, "it was a tremendous opportunity [for Welander] to get to play in Asia. Not only did she come home with a lot more experience, but she also came back with memories that will last a lifetime. I know that Annika will use the experience that she gained and have an excellent year."
That "excellent year" could have no better starting place for Welander and the rest of the women's golf team than right here in Princeton, N.J., for the Princeton Invitational this weekend at the Springdale Golf Club. With another eventful summer behind her, Welander returns to outhit and out-putt her, by now, mundane Ivy League competitors.
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