Season Preview: Women’s Golf primed to compete for conference title again in 2022-23

By Wes Mayberry

| 2022 Women's Golf Fall Schedule |

ADA — After nearly winning a second straight Ohio Athletic Conference championship last season, the Ohio Northern women's golf team returns a bevy of talent as they try to reclaim that crown in 2022-23 under 10th-year head coach Chad Bucci.

"We finished last year on a disappointing note, but I couldn't have been any prouder with the season we had overall," Bucci said. "I believe that with the experience gained by the underclassmen last year, we're going to be even better than what we were last season."

The Polar Bears finished last season with a record of 75-14 after falling to Otterbein by one stroke in a playoff at the OAC Championships. The runner-up showing was Northern's 19th straight top-five finish in the event, and all five team members earned All-OAC honors.

ONU is primed to contend for the conference championship again this year after returning 14 letter winners, including four of those five All-Conference honorees.

That group is led by junior Grace Honigford (West Chester/Lakota East), who has placed herself among the best in program history. She won the OAC Tournament championship as a freshman with a school-record 54-hole score of 236 and matched that total to finish as the OAC co-champion last season.

Honigford, who placed 28th overall at the NCAA Division III Championships as a freshman, owns other school records, including her career average of 79.0 strokes over 39 rounds. Her 78.8 average over 21.5 rounds as a sophomore is a program-best for a single season, and she holds school-record scores of 71 for 18 holes and 143 for 36 holes.

A two-time WGCA All-American Scholar, Honigford earned Academic All-OAC recognition last season and has been named OAC Women's Golfer of the Week six times in her career. She has won Medalist honors 12 times and has 23 top-10 finishes in 25 career tournaments, posting 18 rounds in the 70s.

"Grace has picked up some distance over the summer, which will help her scoring average drop even more than what it is now," Bucci said. "I'm hoping that her leadership on the golf course and in the classroom will rub off on her teammates."

Sophomores Amelia Burger (Centerville) and Rhianna Firmstone (Moon Township, Pa./Moon Area) and senior Isabella Orofino (Powell/Olentangy Liberty) also return as All-OAC honorees from a season ago.

Burger shot a 247 to finish fifth at the 2021 OACs, giving her 10 top-10 finishes on the season, which was second on the team to Honigford's 12. That score ranks sixth in program history for 54 holes, and her average of 83.1 over 21.5 rounds ranked third on the team last year and is eighth all-time at ONU for a single season. She was named OAC Women's Golfer of the Week once as a freshman, shooting a 161 to win Medalist honors at the Bluffton Spring Classic. Burger owns career-best scores of 76 for 18 holes and 159 for 36 holes.

"Amelia is a pure athlete," Bucci said. "She has the length to catapult her into an All-American status player."

Firmstone also shined as a freshman in 2021-22, posting seven top-10 finishes and shooting a 250 to tie for eighth at the OAC Championships. That score ranks eighth all-time at ONU for 54 holes, and her 82.3 average over 18.5 rounds ranked second on the team last year and is fourth in program history for a single season. Her career-best round of 74 ranks fifth all-time at ONU, and her 36-hole best of 151 ranks second in program history.

"Rhianna really knows her game. Her confidence out of bunkers and around the green is unlike anything I've seen," Bucci said. "She doesn't have a lot of length and has to rely on her accuracy and short game, which is second to none."

Orofino enters her senior season coming off shooting a 251 to tie for 10th at the 2022 OACs. That score ranks ninth in program history for 54 holes, and her 84.5 average over 18.5 rounds was fourth-best on the team last year and is the 10th-best single-season mark in program history. The three-year letter winner is a two-time WGCA All-America Scholar and All-OAC honoree. She has career-bests of 78 for 18 holes and 165 for 36 holes and an average of 86.2 over 31 rounds with 12 top-10 finishes in three seasons.

"Isabella is playing to the potential that I thought she would over the past three years," Bucci said. "She has a really nice swing, and I'm excited to see what she does this year."

Honigford, Firmstone, Burger and Orofino enter the season ranked first, second, fourth and ninth, respectively, on the program's all-time career average list.

Three other returners — seniors and three-year letter winners Meghan Utterdyke (Lebanon/Bishop Fenwick), Torrie Smith (Kokomo, Ind./Western) and Olivia Galigher (Bolivar/Tuscarawas Valley) — also rank inside the top 20 on that list at 11th, 13th and 19th, respectively.

Northern's other returning letter winners are senior Jessica Tubbs (Maumee/Springfield), juniors Allison Rountree (Loveland) and Rylie Smith (Cambridge/Buckeye Trail) and sophomores Rebekah Baumlein (Maineville/Kings), Allie Honigford (Ottoville), Madyson Smith (Russiaville, Ind./Western) and Hailie Wilson (Eastlake/North).

Bucci highlighted Galigher and Tubbs for what they have meant to the team in terms of their leadership.

"Olivia and Jessica are going into their senior years, and their work on the golf course and in the classroom doesn't go unnoticed and exemplifies what we expect in our program," he said.

Sophomore Isabella Crego (Ashville/Teays Valley) and five incoming freshmen round out the Polar Bears' 2022-23 roster.

The team opens its 2022-23 schedule on Sept. 4-5 as it hosts the Polar Bear Classic at Colonial Golfers Club in Harrod.

Northern will then travel to play in the Olivet (Mich.) Fall Invitational at Medalist Golf Club in Marshall, Mich., on Sept. 9-10. The fall slate also includes the Heidelberg Fall Clash at Mohawk Country Club in Tiffin on Sept. 17-18, the OAC Preview at River Greens Golf Course in West Lafayette on Oct. 1-2, the Lourdes Fall Invitational at Sylvania Country Club in Sylvania on Oct. 10, the Bluffton Fall Invitational at Hidden Creek Golf Club in Lima on Oct. 15-16 and the Berry (Ga.) Classic at Stoneridge Country Club in Rome, Ga., on Oct. 22-24.

The team's spring schedule will be released at a later date.