Bakersfield College’s women’s golf team is an army of only one this season.
Many women golfers who were due to come to BC’s team were encouraged instead to go to Cal State University Bakersfield’s golfing team, said BC women’s golf coach Larry Cook. Cook said the women golfers went to CSUB instead of BC because they were offered scholarships to go to CSUB and also for reasons connected with CSUB gaining Division I status. CSUB is in its second year of the four-year process of an institution becoming Division I, and CSUB needed a minimum of 12 players on its golfing team to be in compliance with the requirements for Division I status. To assist CSUB’s goal of compliance and also to help CSUB gain an invitation to the Western Conference, golfers bound for BC were encouraged to go to CSUB. Next year, BC’s women’s golf will be up to the standard 12 members, Cook said.
For now, Cook is working in earnest with his only BC student golfer, sophomore Dana Arneson. Arneson made the first team All Conference, but missed the SoCal Regionals by merely one stroke last season. According to Cook, Arneson is a formidable ball striker.
“Dana is very blessed and very advanced,” Cook said of her striking abilities.
However, Arneson needs to correct various inconsistencies in her short game, Cook said. Cook believes that if Arneson stays on course with her game and with school, she will be in the running for a scholarship to a four-year institution.