Jan. 29, 2012

Junior Sara Monberg traveled to Florida this weekend to meet and train with the National Team from her home country of Denmark. She checked in with UTLadyVols.com to relay her experience.

WEEKEND WRAP-UP:

Just as we had to do Saturday, we had a morning run Sunday morning. Even though it was only my second day I could feel it in my legs that I had been active all day Saturday and I can only imagine how the others were feeling. After breakfast we had a scheduled practice with two different stations. My first station was chipping and wedges. There were 11 shots set up and we had to see how many we could get inside six feet in our first shot. I made five, which was not the best, but the shots were not that easy! However, I did make a fifty-yard bunker shot to finish the drill! Then we discussed the shots and the coach wanted us to try and hit the shots outside our comfort zones. For example, I hit a low shot bumping before the green, now I had to land it on the green, just as it would be in tournaments. It was a great drill because there was only that one shot and you just had to hit it. I did not do as well as before, but it was a fun drill. Afterwards we got to practice the shots, so we would not be so afraid of hitting them! The second drill was a drill where we had to hit different shots with different irons like a fade six iron or a driver with draw into a fairway.

The coaches had promised that we could watch the European championship final in handball, so instead of lunch in the restaurant we had lunchboxes while we watched them play. And they WON! It was a great match, and we were all cheering out loud - it was awesome!

Afterwards the others had time off until 2 p.m. if they wanted it. This was great for me because I would have the coach to myself and we could get a good practice in. We looked over my technique for chipping and I can really feel how much my chipping has improved from summer when we first started working on it. When everyone came back from their break we had a putting drill. We had some drills to make in teams of two. Unfortunately I could not stay for more than the putting drill, I had to leave for my flight so I could get back to Knoxville and get to school Monday morning!

Overall it was a great weekend and I was glad that I got to go down there and meet the team and especially the coaches. It is hard to keep the communication and coaching up when you are on different sides of the sea. Now, I am up to date with the swing, chipping and putting. It is up to me to keep it up with practice and playing until the first tournament in March! Since the weather is so great there are no excuses not to be out there getting better.

I predict a great spring season for the Lady Vol Golf team. The whole team is working hard and with the amazing practice facility we have now I do not see why not!

SATURDAY NIGHT:

Yesterday after classes I flew down to Florida to meet with the Danish national team to have some practice this weekend. They have been down here for a week and a half and I was very happy I could go down and meet with them and get to get some good practice with my coach from home to make sure my swing is ready for spring season.

I arrived pretty late last night, so I got checked in and went straight to bed. This morning we had a two-mile run at 7 a.m., as a morning run gets the body woken up and gets it started. Afterwards, we had some practice on the range, putting and chipping green before lunch. After lunch we went playing 18 holes on one of the two courses here at the PGA Village.

Today we played the "older" girls against the younger girls. Unfortunately the younger girls played better than we did today, so we lost to the juniors. After we played we went back to the hotel and had some dinner. Tonight we had a meeting with evaluation from today and planned what will happen tomorrow. We have a morning run again tomorrow at 7 am, and afterwards we will have a full day of practice.

The Danish handball team will play against Serbia in the European championship final, so they arranged for the whole team to watch that on a big screen tomorrow. And hopefully Denmark will win!!!

Share in Sara's Experience: GOLF DENMARK | PGA VILLAGE | HANDBALL CHAMPIONSHIP LIVE STATS