Chip Shots: Sophia Sulkar on the Spring Semester

Hello Illini Nation!

This is freshman Sophia Sulkar and I am so excited to share a little bit about our semester so far, including our training trip to Dallas!

After about a month of spending time with family and celebrating the holidays, we were all ready to get back to our normal routines and continue to prepare ourselves for our spring season.

Upon arriving back on campus, we started up with our routine of team workouts, meetings and practices again, which felt very comforting because I missed these aspects of my daily routine during winter break. Although getting back into our routine came naturally for us, we all had to adapt slightly with our change in classes and schedule. I have found that staying organized and keeping a daily planner has significantly aided me in this transition.

We also had some fun activities planned at the beginning of the semester! We were involved in an Illini men’s basketball t-shirt toss, in which we were able to support our fellow student-athletes and engage the crowd by tossing t-shirts. In addition, the team had the opportunity to make candles at a local studio in Champaign called Fire Doll. We were able to make our own candles by choosing from various essential oils and mixing the components. Overall, the experience was very thrilling as it was something that many of us had never done before. Getting to spend time with the team and try new activities has definitely been a highlight of my semester thus far.

Now onto our training trip, which to say the least, was very exciting. We were all ecstatic to be able to travel to a new location and practice outdoors. We were lucky enough to be able to practice and play at the Dallas Athletic Club (DAC) during our training trip. The practice facilities at DAC were in pristine condition and the enormous short game area enabled us to practice all types of shots. The layouts of the blue course and gold course were very versatile, and each hole had its own unique challenge. Although the weather on our second day at DAC was not ideal, we are grateful to have gained some valuable experience playing in different types of conditions, as it is essential that we be prepared for anything on the golf course. All in all, our training trip to Dallas was a success, and will prove to be very beneficial in our upcoming season!

We kick off our season in…