"Sometime the biggest problem is in your head. You've got to believe."
Those are the words of legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus, and in the game of golf, belief can be the difference between winning and losing. It's what separates good teams from great ones. And it's been the driving force behind the No. 11 Auburn women's golf team this season.
The Tigers began the 2018-19 season with the Mason Rudolph Championship where they finished in a tie for fourth. Then it was a sixth-place finish in the Magnolia Invitational. It was a solid start, especially given that freshman Anika Bolcikova won the Magnolia Invitational playing as an individual, but this team wanted more. They wanted to take that next step.
It wasn't until the Alexa Stirling Women's Intercollegiate Invitational in Atlanta that the players started to realize how close they were. Thanks to a strong performance in the final round, Auburn finished second – one stroke back of the winner.
"We saw some big numbers and yet we came up one shot shy," head coach Melissa Luellen said. "I think it all started to piece together. Like, 'If I'm just better mentally, then I'm going to eliminate those big numbers.' It's basically what we said. If we do this, we're going to start winning tournaments. But not only winning tournaments, we're going to start winning tournaments by 15 or 20 shots."
That belief carried over to the next tournament, and the Tigers went down to Mexico and closed out the fall season by winning the Battle at the Beach by 17 strokes.
Sophomore Kaleigh Telfer shot three straight rounds under par and finished as the co-champion at 5 under par. Sophomore Julie McCarthy (-1) and junior Elena Hualde Zuniga (E) also placed in the top five while freshman Brooke Sansom (+3) and sophomore Mychael O'Berry (+6) did their part with top-20 finishes. It was a team effort and showed what this group is capable of.
"I think it was a huge thing for all of us a team just to know that it's possible," Telfer said. "I don't think at the beginning anybody believed that we could win a tournament. So I think it's just a confidence boost for all of us, and now going into the spring with a win behind us is always good."
Heading into the spring season, Auburn is ranked No. 11 nationally per Golfstat. Telfer (No. 18) and McCarthy (No. 33) are both ranked in the top 40 individually, and Telfer – who has shot par or better in seven of her 10 rounds this season – was added to the ANNIKA Award Watch List in November.
The question this spring will be how the Tigers handle success. Can they build on it?
"It can work one of two ways," Luellen said. "When you have success, human nature is actually to back off a little bit whereas the underdog mentality is 'keep working, keep working.'
"I'm very proud of the improvements that we've made and that they've made, but you have to be very careful. You can't rest on any laurels. It's just one tournament. We played well one given week. And now I think they need to continue to prove it to themselves. Not to prove it to anybody else, but to truly prove it to themselves. I think they get when they all put it together how good they can be."
The spring season begins with the Shootout at Shoal Creek on Feb. 10. There are six tournaments before the SEC Championship highlighted by the Evans Derby Experience in Auburn, March 23-25. This year's Evans Derby field consists of 14 teams and includes six teams ranked in the top 10 after the fall season.
The Tigers will also host an NCAA Regional on May 6-8.
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @greg_ostendorf