This week, Oregon women’s golf coach Ria Scott had the team perform short game drills through the rain and cold weather. Scott and the other coaches also put the team into more competitive modes and simulated real game situations in practice.

Cassy Isagawa, a fourth year senior with the team, struggled to complete the short game drills, but believes that it will help her in the long run. Isagawa knows that not every swing will go in the team’s favor, but the drills will help her get prepared for when the tournament gets difficult. Last year at the Silverado Showdown, Isawaga placed sixth overall. This year, she’s looking to improve.

“Coming into Silverado, I am striking it much better compared to last year, so that gives me more confidence,” Isagawa said. In preparation for this tournament, Isawaga has been working specifically on her stroke and putting game.

Isagawa finds that the most difficult hole to play in this tournament is the third. The third hole flows from right to left with everything sloping to the right. The whole course contains elements that will help the Ducks prepare for the Pac-12 Championship tournament in Boulder, Colorado. The Ducks are heading into this tournament with an advantage: This course resembles the courses in Oregon.

The course has big tree line fairways guiding the course to the hole. From the tee off to hole, there is escalation toward the green, which will make getting the ball in the hole more difficult. The course contains a good mix of long holes and short holes.

Cathleen Santoso, a second year golfer with the team, is approaching the Silverado Showdown with a different mindset than the one she had during the Anuenue Spring Break Classic in Kapalua, Hawaii.

Santoso struggled to close out the tournament at the Anuenue Spring Break Classic. Santoso is fixing her mindset from, “Hey, I got three more holes then I’m done,” to having the quality of her last three holes be the same as her first three holes. Santoso ended up tying for ninth place out of the top-20.

According to golfstat.com, the Ducks are going into this tournament ranked No. 32.

Santoso is looking forward to facing Northwestern the most.

“We haven’t played with them for a long time, and they are the highest ranked team there with us, it will be good to play with them,” Santoso said.

Follow Keoni Conlu on Twitter @kconlu13

For casual spectators of the sport of rowing, they see eight individuals in a boat and one person sitting in the front yelling. The official title of that person sitting in front of the boat is a coxswain. Amanda Smith, a four year rower with the women’s team, compares the importance of a coxswain to that of the quarterback position for a football team.

“The coxswains are the ones that make the plays, direct the team and once they make a call they can get the boat to move on the next stroke,” Smith said.

Ruoxi He, the first year president and fourth year member of the club, is also the coxswain for the women’s varsity team. She joined the club with the mindset of being a rower and getting a good workout. But the idea of being a Coxswain was something she was very open to.

She says that the most important trait of a coxswain is that they are leaders.

“You need some form of leadership skills because you are technically the person that is leading the eight people that are in your boat.”

Frank Leng, a third year rower with the men’s team, says the coxswain stereotype is that a person has to be loud and in your face. Leng finds that the most helpful trait of a coxswain is during the middle of a race they remind him to keep good form during the difficult parts. Leng recalls a moment when the coxswain really pulled through during their nationals race in Georgia last year.

“We were against boats we really didn’t know,” Leng said. “Since us rowers didn’t know how other boats are doing, the coxswain was especially key because she knew what to say at the right time.”

“During the last 200 meters of our race (last year) I said  ‘well do you want to be that crew that wins by a couple of inches or do you guys want to be the boat that loses by that half second,’” He said.

He says that the best part of being a coxswain are the races.

“Races in general can be nerve racking but I just have to make sure that I stay in a calm mindset so my rowers aren’t feeling frantic, but I know that they get nervous before races,” he said. He found that a useful strategy to motivate his racers is to give them individual attention.

“They like it when I call them by name because I think it checks them back into the race,” he said.

For Smith, who is seated right in front of the coxswain, she says that during a close race the coxswain would call for a seat and that’s a signal to the rowers that it’s time to get aligned with that seat in the opposing boat and pass them.

“(Coxswain) motivate us to move on boats because we can’t see what’s happening in the race. We are just supplying the power,” Smith said.

For casual spectators of rowing, they might just see eight individuals in a boat and one person sitting in the front yelling. The official title of that person sitting in front of the boat is the coxswain. Amanda Smith, a four-year rower with the women’s team, compares the importance of a coxswain to that of the quarterback position for a football team.

“The coxswains are the ones that make the plays, direct the team and once they make a call they can get the boat to move on the next stroke,” Smith said.

Ruoxi He, the president and fourth-year member of the club, is the coxswain for the women’s varsity team. She joined the club with the mindset of being a rower and getting a good workout. But, the idea behind being a coxswain, someone making the calls, was something she was very open to.

He says that the most important quality of a coxswain is leadership.

“You are technically the person that is leading the eight people that are in your boat,” He said.

Frank Leng, a third-year rower with the men’s team, talks about how the coxswain stereotype is that a person has to be loud and in your face. Leng finds that the most helpful trait of a coxswain is when in the middle of a race, they remind him to keep good form during the difficult parts. Leng recalls a moment when the coxswain really pulled through during their nationals race in Georgia last year.

“We were against boats we really didn’t know,” Leng said. “Since us rowers didn’t know how other boats are doing, the coxswain was especially key because he knew what to say at the right time.”

During the race, He’s words of motivation are always different.

“During the last 200 meters of our race (last year) I said, ‘Well do you want to be that crew that wins by a couple of inches or do you guys want to be the boat that loses by that half second,’” He said.

He says that the best part of being a coxswain is the races.

“Races in general can be nerve racking but I just have to make sure that I stay in a calm mindset so my Rowers aren’t feeling frantic, but I know that they get nervous before races,” He said. He found that a useful strategy to motivate her racers is to give them individual attention. “They like it when I call them by name because I think it checks them back into the race,” He said.

For Smith, who is seated right in front of the coxswain, she says that during a close race the Coxswain would call for a seat and that’s a signal to the rowers that it’s time to get aligned with that seat in the opposing boat and pass them.

“(Coxswains) motivate us to move on boats because we can’t see what’s happening in the race. We are just supplying the power,” Smith said.