Coming off a 12th place finish at the Chicago State Fall Invitational, the Eastern women’s golf team gets back into action, beginning Sunday at the Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Fall Invitational.

Last year, the Panthers tied for sixth place at Edwardsville. This year’s campaign brings another opportunity for Eastern to play at Sunset Hills Country Club.

The Panthers know that the course has its own unique qualities that could be obstacles.

“This course has a lot of hills,” senior Elyse Banovic said. “They don’t call it Sunset Hills for nothing. You need to have good endurance to play this course and keep your ball in play.”

Senior Emily Fitzgerald said that executing on the greens would be a key factor throughout the tournament, but especially on day one.

“For Edwardsville, my putting will have to improve,” Fitzgerald said. “Conquering the speed of the greens during the practice round will be really important.”

Banovic also said she knows how the greens can be an important part of beating the course.

“We will have to adjust to the greens,” she said.

Fitzgerald said she knows that staying in-bounds and knowing the fairways will also be key to playing well at Edwardsville.

“It will be really important to keep the ball in play,” she said. “And to analyze the different elevations on the fairways.”

At Chicago State, Fitzgerald said she had problems with focusing too much on her final score rather than focusing on each shot individually.

“From the Chicago State tournament, I need to work on staying positive and focusing on the shot at hand rather than the end results,” Fitzgerald said.

Banovic said she would try to keep the same attitude she had at Chicago State. Like Fitzgerald, Banovic said the team’s need to focus more on the little things.

“I’m just going to keep the same state of mind,” she said. “And as a team, we all need to think about our individual shots rather than score.”

Eastern will tee off on Sunday morning for the practice round, with a tee time still yet to be determined. The tournament will continue on Monday and will wrap up Tuesday afternoon at Sunset Hills Country Club.

Dan Hildebrandt can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].