VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR)- Golf is a sport that sees most college teams on the road for most, if not all, of their tournaments, so a weekend at home will be a special one for the Old Dominion women.
The Monarchs host the fourth annual Evie Odom Invitational at Princess Anne Country Club this weekend, with action beginning Friday morning. It's a chance to show off their game for the home crowd and some other Monarch student-athletes who will come out to take it all in.
"We've got good weather on tap, an amazing venue and we're really hoping to get some folks out there to watch us play," head coach Mallory Kane said.
"It's so much fun," added sophomore Puneet Bajwa, who finished second at this event in 2023. "Seeing our friends come and support us, our family members from some of our teammates who are going to be here this week, very excited to have them here, too, and just our fellow athletes from ODU. It's just so much fun."
"It makes me feel much better, much more comfortable out on the course," graduate student Alina Shchepteva noted of being at home. "I just like it."
14 college teams will take part in the tournament, hailing from all across the country. In addition the Monarchs, Chattanooga, College of Charleston, Coastal Carolina, Furman, James Madison, Notre Dame, North Florida, Penn State, Princeton, Richmond, Sacramento State, Miami and Western Kentucky will be represented. The programs boast players from all over the world and fans will be able to take in some of the top golf the college game has to offer.
"They're great teams," senior Carley Rudolf said of the field. "That amps us up even more. We're competing against the best so it's really exciting to see."
"It puts a little pressure on us, but it's great," added Shchepteva. "I love playing under pressure and I love to see some great teams out here from all over the world."
The event is named for Evie Odom, a Monarch herself whose donation to the golf team marked the single-largest to a women's program in Old Dominion history. She was motivated to help the program while working at ODU and after a co-worker remarked how she was unaware that the Monarchs had a women's golf program.
"Right there and then I was like 'we need some visibility," she said. "We do for a lot of other sports and I think people don't realize right here in our own backyard that we have some really very, very talented women on the women's golf team."
The Evie Odom Invitational runs from Friday-Sunday at Princess Anne Country Club. It's free and open to the public, with rounds teeing off at 8:30 AM each day.
