LARAMIE, Wyo. (Feb. 8, 2019) – The Wyoming Cowgirl golf team gets its spring season underway next week when it heads to Irvine, Calif., to compete at the Battle at the Rock at the Oak Quarry Golf Club this Monday.
 
The Battle at the Rock is set to run from Feb. 11-12. Live scoring is available at Golfstat.com. Paired with Montana, CSUN and Cal Baptist, Wyoming will tee off at 8:30 a.m. MT on Monday morning.
 
This week, GoWyo.com sat down with junior golfer Erin Sargent to talk about her impressive fall season, winter break and the team's upcoming spring season.
 
You and a number of your teammates were active in pro tournaments during the break. How do those events—and performing well in them—help your confidence and your game as a whole?
"I think it's so beneficial playing in tournaments over break, because even though it's a break we're still able to hit the ground running in the spring because we've stayed competitive. Confidence-wise, it definitely helps going out there and playing against the same people that we normally do in normal competition. No matter what, it's very beneficial to stay in that same competitive mindset."
 
After playing in the Men's Agave Amateur in December, what did you take from that that you can bring into this spring and the rest of your career moving forward?
"First and foremost, it really helped my confidence. Being able to go out and see that I can compete with anybody is what I gained from that experience. If I can compete with the guys, I can definitely compete with the girls. Having the same mindset no matter who I'm playing against or what course I'm on, or what the conditions are like, I'm able to compete and I'm able to put up numbers. That's the biggest thing that I took away from that experience."
 
Other than playing in tournaments individually, what do you do during the winter break that helps you prepare for the spring?
"A lot of practice. I'm from Colorado, but I went to California and Arizona over break so it was good to get on grass as much as possible just to practice and play. I know a lot of us have been working on getting stronger, working on our fitness, diet and all of that stuff. That all plays into our overall performance. I feel like I can speak for myself and the rest of the team that we've been working on a lot of those things."
 
How excited are you to get back out there and play next week?
"So excited! I cannot wait. I'm ready to get back out on the green grass. I'm excited to play this course. It's my third year playing it and it's beautiful. We're so lucky to get to play out there, and I'm just really looking forward to competing again."
 
You mentioned you've played at this course the last two years. With what you know about the course, what are your expectations for next week?
"I know that the weather can be iffy, and next week it looks like it's going to be a little chilly. The good thing is we're all really tough players and we're used to the cold weather. It can be windy too, but being from Wyoming we deal with the wind a lot. The conditions can be challenging but it's a very scoreable course. It doesn't play very long. It's more of a placement kind of course, and I think if we're able to get some putts to drop, we can go very low out there."
 
Looking forward to the rest of the season, what are you most looking forward to this spring?
"I'm excited to see what records we can break as a team. We have a lot of potential and I'm excited to see if we can put all of our scores together and make something happen. I know that we're all very excited for South Carolina. That's where I'm originally from so I'm super excited to go back. Entrada is a course that we always look forward to because it's beautiful, and there's three holes with the lava on it and that one can kind of get our heartrate up. And then our home tournament is a blast. We get to have that home tournament feel away from home. Those three tournaments are the most exciting ones for this season, but of course I look forward to all of them."
 
With so many young players on the team this season, do you feel like you've had to take on more of a leadership role than in years past?
"I feel like even as a freshman I thought I could have a leadership role on this team. As I've gotten older, I've had people look up to me more, whether I've noticed it or not. I've loved having that kind of role on the team. I feel like I kind of thrive in a leadership role, because I grew up feeling like I always have. I've definitely really enjoyed it, and I think I've helped set goals among the team that people have realized over time that we're capable of accomplishing."