Bennie golf opens spring season with two top-five finishes in a row

On April 13-14, the CSB golf team competed in the Gustie Spring Invite, where they finished fifth of 11 teams. One week later, they went to Bethel to compete in the Rumble at the Ridge tournament.

With four golfers finishing in the top 10, the Bennies took home first out of 10 teams. Sophomore Jamie Bimberg finished in the top 10 at both tournaments.

At Bethel, senior Emily Renner finished fourth individually, followed by Bimberg and sophomores Maggie Roth and Catherine Jance.

The team will conclude its spring season this weekend at the St. Olaf Spring Invite. Renner feels fortunate they have had warm weather this spring season.

“We are happy that all of our events have been able to happen due to this early spring,” Renner said.

Although the team started slow at the Gustavus Invite, Renner was very happy with how the team did last weekend.

“It was great to see the team come together and see us put together a good team score. We have been focusing on tightening up our short games this spring and hope to continue to do so to play good golf,” Renner said.

The team is working hard this season to see as much improvement as they can with the short time they have outside, according to Renner.

As her senior season winds down, Renner is grateful for her time spent with this team.

“As it is my last season, I am looking forward to savoring every moment I have left with my teammates and coaches. I will miss my team and this sport very much but have made amazing memories and lifelong connections that I will hold onto forever,” Renner said.

Bimberg said this season has been very fun, mainly due to the team’s chemistry.

“Our team has been able to spend time both on and off the course together, creating good camaraderie within the group. We spent some of the colder days inside playing pickleball, which has become our new favorite activity together,” Bimberg said.

The Bethel tournament was a big confidence boost for the team, according to Bimberg.

“Our team was able to come together and place first. We focused a lot on short game chipping and putting this past week, and I think this helped us save shots around the greens,” Bimberg said.

Going into spring season, the team was working on improving their mindset and creating a positive, uplifting environment. “We had a mental game clinic during our spring break trip in Arizona, and I feel like we all approach golf differently now,” Bimberg said.

Additionally, Bimberg wanted to recognize teammate Renner. “As a team we are looking forward to closing out the season at St. Olaf this coming weekend. It will be bittersweet as it’s Emily Renner’s last tournament as a Bennie, and we are all going to miss her so much,” Bimberg said.

Head coach Daryl Schomer said the spring season has been productive so far. The weather has allowed the team to practice outside a lot more than last year.

“We took our annual spring trip to Desert Mountain, Ariz., to train for a week. As always, we had a great time and an amazing experience playing Championship golf courses and using their state-of-the-art practice facilities,” Schomer said. Although the team struggled at the Gustavus tournament, Schomer said the team always learns from those bad days.

“This past weekend we won the Bethel tournament. That’s the nature of golf. One week to the next, things can be so different,” Schomer said.

To keep improving, Schomer says the team must master some of the easy things like distance control and basic short game shots. He said this is an area where players can make up a lot of strokes in a short period of time.

“We worked hard on that after the Gustavus tournament and the results showed this past weekend at Bethel,” Schomer said.

The team has been working hard to prepare for this season, according to Schomer. “We’re putting an extra emphasis on training our mental game this spring and beyond. It’s one of if not the most important part of the game and therefore needs to be practice just like driving, chipping and putting,” Schomer said.

The Bennies have high hopes as they look ahead to the conclusion of their spring season this weekend at St. Olaf.