Sports
Photo courtesy of athletics.uwsp.edu
Urban is only the second repeat player of the year in the WIAC’s history.
Urban repeats as women’s golf WIAC Player of the Year
The Pointer
Ggott172@uwsp.edu
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point senior Jessica Urban became only the second player in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference women’s golf history to receive Player of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons when the WIAC awards were announced last Thursday.
For Urban, the honor reflected on the completion of her objectives for the season.
“Some of my main goals were to repeat as WIAC Player of the Year, have a scoring average of a 77 or lower, win 50 percent of the tournaments I play in, and [work on] some technical skills out on the course,” Urban said. “I pretty much accomplished each one of these goals.”
After winning Player of the Year honors the previous season, Urban dedicated herself to making a run at the repeat.
“There was a lot more pressure on winning it this year than last year. Last year, I didn’t even remember that they gave a player of the year award so I didn’t expect anything or set a goal to win it,” Urban said.
“After winning it last year, I had that award on my mind all season because I wanted to win it again. It was a big goal I had for the fall season so I put a lot of pressure on myself to play good at each tournament.”
Urban did just that, finishing with a scoring average of 77.4, good for best in the WIAC, along with winning three individual events during the season. She also finished second at the season-ending WIAC championship; her third round score of 72 was second-best in the championship’s history and according to Urban, one of her proudest achievements of the season.
When her career at UWSP comes to an end, Urban plans to see how far her golf skills can take her.
“I have set some goals for the future to play golf such as going to qualifying school for the Futures Tour,” Urban said.
The Duramed Futures Tour is a developmental tour to “to prepare the world’s best young women professional golfers for a successful career on the LPGA Tour,” according to the official Duramed Futures Tour Web site.
“I want to give golf a shot after college so I can look back and say I at least tried playing golf professionally,” Urban said. “I think it would be a blast seeing what I could do and experiencing golf in a different way.”
For now, Urban will enjoy her latest honor, and reflect on the work it took to achieve it.
“It means a lot to me because that was one of my main goals, to repeat as WIAC Player of the Year,” Urban
said. “I thought it was going to be tough to repeat Player of the Year and it was hard, which only made it worth so much more,” said Urban.
“That will be one thing I will remember forever.”
