Happy Holidays from all of us!!!!!!

Team with new hats!

Happy Holidays!!!  We want to wish all our families, friends and dedicated fans a wonderful holiday season and all the best in the new year too!!  Thank you all for your GREAT support this past year!  It’s been an ongoing amazing journey, and we look forward to more fun and excitement in 2012!!!

In the meantime, did you notice anything new in the picture?  We are officially ready to hit the slopes!!!  Haha!!!  Actually, it won’t be long before we are teeing it up again for spring season–but we do have to pass through winter first!!  Thus, our new NIKE “golf” hats will come in handy on those chillier days (although Newberg never really gets all that cold–as our home course stays open year round!).  Still, looking “cool” on “cool” days is key for our team!!!  Or–is it, looking “hot” on “cool” days??  I guess both are fine!  Haha!

Finals week is here at Fox, so it’s pretty much crunch time for the gals!!  We had a study break last night which featured “chocolate fondue” to help get ready for all that hardcore studying!!  We had lots of healthy fruit though too–which tastes pretty good dipped in chocolate–although we don’t recommend dipping grapes in chocolate (just a little tip!).

Our holiday break begins at the end of this week, so we will be off until January!!!   In early February, we will have our “Second” NW Conference Championship banner raising (yeah!) taking place during half-time of a GFU Women’s Basketball home game.  This is the same night that George Fox will be celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration and Pink Zone (breast cancer awareness night).  So–check back early in the new year for more updates on our activities and we will fill you in more about our spring schedule too!!

Merry Christmas from all of us!  Cheers to a happy and healthy 2012!  We are truly blessed!

P.S.  Love this “snow falling” across the page feature!!!!

THREE-PEAT!! NW Conference Fall Classic Champions!!

NW Conference Fall Classic Champions with "Megan's grammy!"

We got the job done!!!  We ended the fall season with a big “W” at the NW Conference Fall Classic Championship!!  Our team played strong, and we are excited about our victory!!  It was an amazing weekend starting with a tailgater celebration with cinnabons, lots of family members, alums and GF fans and ended with a trophy and trick or treat bags full of candy and goodies!!  It doesn’t get much better than that!!

Finally—photo’s!!!  Whoo hoo!!!!  Here you go!!!

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Good Times at Culturame Classic!!!!

Culturame Classic teams at The Reserve GC

We hosted the “Second Annual Culturame Classic” at the Reserve Golf Club in Aloha Oregon on Oct. 14/15.  It’s a beautiful course where Peter Jacobsen’s Fred Meyer Challenge and the Champion’s tour “Tradition” use to be played.  Lots of bunkers!!  Something like 200 of them in total!!!  It was a GREAT time for all the teams!  We had nice tee prizes and tons of snacks!!  Really fun having the opportunity to play such a fun course!  Hawaii Hilo (D-II team) won the team trophy once again.  Our team came in second!  I knew it was going to be a tough challenge playing an Hawaiian team in the city of “Aloha!”  The cards were stacked against us–what can I say!!!  We still had a lot of fun with a lot of teams from our Conference as well as some California schools, Simpson and Biola as well as NW Christian from Eugene, OR!  It made it fun to play a lot of different schools and teams together!!

Thank you to Culturame.com and my special friend, Debra Phillips for helping us make it happen once again!!!!!!

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D-II Competition in Olympia WA!

View from 9th green at Olympia CC!

I’m way behind in my blogging—sorry about that!!!  Hard to stay up with it during the season with so much excitement going on!!  The team played in St. Martin’s Invitational on Oct. 7/8 in Olympia Washington.  It was GREAT experience playing up against some really strong D-II competition and playing at the tight and challenging Olympia Country Club as well.   We loved the beautiful views of Puget Sound and saw a little of Mt. Ranier peeking out on the second day!  We didn’t do quite as well the first day, but settled down the second day and finished in 7th ahead of the other D-III teams!  Playing against strong competition like this will help us become a better team in the long run!!

It was super fun having all of Whitney’s family out cheering us on!!!  It really made the whole experience more special for us!!  We love our families and fans!!!!  More photo’s will keep coming so keep checking back! 

A “W” at First Fall Season Conference Event!!!!

On the road to Pacific Inv'l

We played in our first NW Conference tournament, the Pacific Invitational, this past weekend and guess what?  We won!!!!!  Whoo hoo!! Okay–so I’m not one to brag about the team, but I do have to point out one key fact.  We had 5 players in the top 10!!!!  I know–pretty crazy indeed!!!  We are excited, but we aren’t going to get carried away (although we did carry Megan around (see photo in slideshow) after she who won the medalist title in her first NW Conference tourney!  Our goal is to keep “building and growing” as a team and see where this all takes us!!!!  So far, our sonic yellow shirts are taking us to new heights!!!  That’s for sure!!!  It’s definitely easier to spot our players around the course!!!  Our bright blue plaid hats are quite noticeable as well!  We are thinking about combining the two one of these days–so look out–you will definitely need some shades for that!!!

A HUGE thank you to all our families, alums and fans who came out to support us!!!  It was so awesome having “galleries” scattered around the course–including two of our alums—Whitney Clunes and Mandy Cameron!!!  So fun having you gals out to watch!  Lots of GREAT memories over the years at Quail–for sure!!!!  Love the “signs” that Mandy and Tim brought as well–definitely added to the excitement!!!

Okay, you can read the entire story online if you like.  It’s a good one!!!!  Bottom line is that we scored lower as a team on the second day when the conditions were tougher—that’s what made this victory truly an exciting one!!!  Stay tuned as we continue our journey up to Olympia Washington next week to play in St. Martin’s Invitational!!!  Go Bruins!!!!

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Season “Kick off” at Notre Dame!!!

Touchdown Jesus at Notre Dame!

We “kicked off” our 2011-’12 season in South Bend (Notre Dame!), Indiana earlier this week in the O’Brien National Invitational, playing against some of the top teams in the nation (D-III) at Notre Dame’s home golf course (The Warren Course).  Basically, nine of the ten schools participating are ranked in the top 11 in the pre-season coaches polls (including us at #11) !!  It was like a “mini Nationals” right out of the gate!!

We arrived with some nervous excitement, and a few new freshmen but we were ready to take on the challenge after some inspiration from “Touchdown Jesus!”  The mural is stunning on Notre Dame’s library, and we had a good time taking a ton of pictures next to it as well as touring the beautiful campus!  We even found some “red suited guy” who agreed to have his picture taken with us next to the statue of Moses (see slideshow!).  Not sure exactly what that was about—but he definitely added to the “campus scene!”

Our practice session and round was a lot of fun on Saturday as more and more of the teams arrived to the course.  We arrived FIRST (always a good sign!!) and we felt good that we had a chance to get in a little “extra” work!!!

We came out  on Day One in our new “sonic yellow” Nike shirts, and showed that we were definitely the BRIGHTEST team!!!  We got noticed before we teed off, but also AFTER we finished as well!!!  We fired a 323 team score which was just 8 strokes off of first, and we were tied for fourth!!!  It was pretty thrilling—especially since 3 of our players had never played the Warren course before (except practice round), and many teams had several returning players—which makes a big difference!

On Day Two,  we hung in there and fought our hardest despite being in a different ‘zone’ than everyone else!!!  Remember, we traveled the furthest—3 times zones whereas most teams were either in their same timezone or just one timezone different.  Thus, we were hitting balls at “4:30am” West Coast time and teeing it up at “5:30am”  while most of you were probably still sleeping1!!  Haha!!!  We handled it well though and stayed consistent, shooting a team score of 326.  Another team had a really hot round, and we fell a little short of the team we were tied with, but our consistency was definitely there!  We finished in 6^th place, and not that far off of first!!  It was a great start to our new season, and we showed everyone that we are not only “bright” but that we belong!!!

The experience was FANTASTIC!!!  We learned so much and we can’t wait to bring it to the next tournament in another week!   We will take what we learned and keep building.  Note:  We also learned not to follow my GPS directions to the Chicago airport as we almost missed our flight home!!!  Haha!

Stay tuned for all the excitement this year!  I’ll try my best to update the blog—although I’m already a bit behind!!   Thank you for your patience!!! This has been a hectic time getting ready for such a big trip just one week after the start of school!!!!  Also–the hardest thing was leaving two players behind!  We have two other AWESOME players on the team–that you’ll be seeing soon–Whitney and Laura!!!  Will do double the photo’s on them–as we want you to get to know our entire team!!!!!!

Check out the pics and Go Bruins!!!!

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GFU Serve Day 2011

Whitney, Pres. Robin, Megan, Kelsey and Abby!

Our “Serve Day” at George Fox was last Wednesday (Sept. 7).  Serve Day is an annual day of service at the university where the entire campus closes for the day, and the student body, faculty and staff go out into the community to “give back to others.”  It’s about helping others for the day but also enlarging our opportunities to participate in service for others throughout the year.  As has been our tradition with our team, this year we went back out to The Children’s Course in Gladstone, Oregon.  Our Head Men’s Baseball Coach, Marty Hunter joined us as well.

The Children’s Course is a non-profit, par 3, nine-hole course and Learning Center that is part of the First Tee of Portland (the national organization). The course offers numerous programs, which focus on teaching life skills and values through the game of golf to various youth organizations throughout the area, including disadvantaged and special needs groups.

We started Serve Day with a sunrise breakfast on the campus lawn featuring an inspirational band and a few words from our President, Robin Baker.  Then, we bagged our own lunches and took off for the course.

When we arrived at the course, we all gathered around to watch a short video and learn more about the kids involved in the programs.  Unfortunately, this year, we did not have a chance to work directly with any of the kids as it was the first day of school for many of the schools involved with The Children’s Course.  We hope to get back later in the fall and meet and work with some of the children!  Looking forward to that!!

Instead, our Serve Day this year was about cleaning golf balls, raking leaves and branches, trimming trees, filling in sand on tee boxes, cleaning the Learning Center shed, washing windows, clipping roses, etc., etc.  By the time we had finished, no one would let me take their picture!!!  Haha!

After a very rewarding (and a bit exhausting!) day, we drove back to campus to change clothes and then go out for a short practice.  Lots to do before our first tournament!!!  Then afterwards, there was a big outside celebration on campus! Although the campus will not close in the future this academic year (unless of course for snow!), our team will continue to reach out and serve others!  We are proud of what we do and can do for others, and one day is definitely not enough!!!!

Stand by for slideshow–coming soon!!!

Go Bruins!!!

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2011-12 Season has begun!

First team photo!

Our 2011-12 season is underway!!!  We add four new first year student-athletes (Whitney Jammerman, Laura Haun, Megan McGrew and Loreece Magsanide) to our four returning juniors (Jill Westendorf, Lanee Danforth, Abby Mann and Kelsey Morrison)!!  “Eight is GREAT” is our motto!!!  We are off on a fantastic journey this season, and we can’t wait to see where it takes us!!

Our first adventure is a BIG ONE!!  Next week, we leave for Notre Dame to play against many of the top teams in the nation!! (schools that finished in the top 10 at Nationals this past spring!).   Wow–talk about jumping right into it!!!   You have to start somewhere though–right?!?!   It’s okay—we like the pressure–we have worked hard to get where we at—so going to work at “seeing it, feeling it, and trusting it” (from Seven Days in Utopia!).  Hopefully, we’ll find our own “Utopia” in South Bend, Indiana!!  Actually, Notre Dame is a great place for it, as the church there has one of the most beautiful ceilings in the world.  Breathtaking!!!

So, stay tuned for an action-packed fall season!!!!  I hope to post a lot of photo’s here and “stories” from the road!!!  We especially can’t wait to showcase our new gear this season–including new “plaid hats” (in the photo) and sonic yellow polo’s (coming out to play soon!).    Thank you supporters–hope you will come out to cheer us on!!!

NCAA National Championship again!!!

2011 NCAA Nat'l Championship

For the second year in a row, our team made it to the NCAA National Championships!!!!!!  Once again, it was in Florida at Mission Inn Resort, about 40 minutes west of Orlando!!  The weather was similar to what we experienced last year–hot and humid–and we believed going in that we had a very good chance at competing for the title (especially after our strong spring season!).  Unfortunately, the course got us the first day!!!  It’s a challenging course–and not only can the alligators bite–but so can the bunkers, water hazards and tricky putting greens!!!  We came back super strong the second day with the SECOND BEST round of any team—but it wasn’t quite enough.  We ended up in 12th (in the nation!!!) but we learned more of what’s needed to compete at the highest level!  The knowledge that we gained will be invaluable to our program going forward!!

We are motivated for Fall Season to begin!!!!  Stay tuned for exciting news and updates!!!!

2011 NW Conference Champions!

NW Conference Champions and families!