Golf: Andrews eyeing a three-peat

ANDREWS Three weeks is a long time.

A long time to wait. A long time to practice.

A long time to get better.

Headed back to the UIL Class 3A State Golf Championships for the seventh consecutive year, the Andrews girls golf team isn't the same dominant team that won titles the last two years.

The Lady Mustangs aren't the favorite, either. That honor goes to Monahans, a team that has only been beaten twice this year - neither time by a team in Class 3A.

But Andrews believes three weeks of practice might have closed the gap.

"Lately we've actually had some confidence," said Andrews senior Morgan Dockery, the only remaining player from last year's state title-winning lineup. "We've been playing solid, we've been playing 18 every day, and our short game has improved tremendously."

Playing on and around the green has been a problem for Andrews all season long.

To get to the level their biggest rival - the Lady Loboes - have been playing at all season, the Lady Mustangs knew they needed to close the gap on the greens.

"As far as hitting it off the tee and hitting the approach onto the green, there's not a whole lot of difference in their squad and our squad," Andrews coach Mark Burgen said. "The difference is them staying steady and solid, chipping and putting on the green."

With that deficit in mind, the Lady Mustangs spent the three weeks between the Region I-3A Championships and the trip to Austin trying to get better on the green.

Andrews spent some time on the putting green.

The Lady Mustangs spent more time playing 18 holes, trying to improve their short game by simply playing every day.

Working hard has paid off, but three weeks of improvement can't teach the entire squad to stay cool in the atmosphere of the state tournament.

Andrews might be the two-time defending state champs.

But most of these girls will be making their first trip to Austin.

"We've been compared so much to last year's team," Meagan Slatton said. "We're not as experienced, and we're feeling a lot of pressure."

This edition of the Lady Mustangs hadn't talked about defending the title until recently.

Keeping the idea quiet didn't keep their thoughts quiet, though.

"I feel like everyone is going out and expecting us to do the same as they did," Slatton said. "We have pretty big shoes to fill."

Nobody understands the dominance of last year's team better than Dockery, but the Lady Mustangs do have a couple of other girls who are familiar with that level of success.

Senior Kaitlyn Gilbreath played on varsity several times last year.

And McKenzie Long - a freshman who doubles as the shortstop for the Andrews softball team, which is in the area round - watched her older sister, Addison, win the Class 3A state medalist title last year.

Long has already picked her sister's brain for advice.

"She told me to prepare to be nervous," Long said. "‘Cause I'm going to be nervous. But she told to me to fight to the end."

And make a few putts.