Chip Shots: Siyan Chen Recaps the Spring Season

Hi Illini Nation,

I hope everyone’s doing well and staying healthy so far in 2023! I would like to talk a little bit about our spring season up to this point as well as my personal experience here at the U of I and with the team.

We have competed in four events so far this semester. One of the most memorable rounds so far would be the second round at the ICON Invitational. We posted a total score of 276 (-14), which was one of the lowest team scores in a single round in the program’s history. Our junior, Isabel Sy, shot a 63 (-9) in the second round, which is the new lowest 18-hole score in program history.

We are always excited to put new names and scores into our record book. The weather conditions were relatively ideal at the tournament and the team did a good job of capitalizing on the opportunities we had on the course.

Following the ICON Invitational, we played in the Briar’s Creek Invitational, where we recorded our best finish so far this season. The weather was a little bit tough in the tournament with some cooler temperatures. But the team battled through the conditions and fought till the end.

In our last tournament, fifth-year team member Crystal Wang won the tournament with a score of 5-under, which included her fantastic performance of a 3-under in her last four holes. We are very proud of Crystal’s overall performance this season and looking forward to more great accomplishments from her the rest of the season.

As a senior, I want to share some great experiences I have had with the team. I always feel really lucky to be able to be part of the team. The team is more like a family than a team to me. Everyone on the team has a really close relationship with each other. We not only practice and workout together, but we also go out to eat and study together often.

The close relationship we have allows us to build a great team culture with everyone being committed and hard-working. We also share our goals, commitments and struggles with each other so we can hold each other accountable and help each other to improve together.

All in all, it has been a season with ups and downs for us. But the team always takes the ups as motivation and the downs as learning opportunities, which will all help us to get to where we want to go by the end of the season. We are heading to Ohio State next week and can’t wait to…