Eastern Kentucky. Murray State. Tennessee Tech.

The Eastern Illinois women’s golf team has had a chance to scout three of their Ohio Valley Conference opponents this season.

The Panthers can use those scouting opportunities to their advantage today when the OVC Tournament starts in Muscle Shoals, Ala. The 54-hole tournament will be hosted by Jacksonville State and held at The Shoals on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.

The Panthers are not the conference favorite, but they have seen what can happen to a top team if they collapse.

At the Southern Illinois Saluki Invitational on March 30-31, Murray State finished the first day in third place with a first-round 301 (+21). The Panthers were ninth with a 316, and Eastern Kentucky finished 10th at 319.

But on the second day, the Panthers tightened their grip and finished with a 303 and 619 overall for the tournament.

Murray State, though, shot a 311 on the second day, and fell to sixth place. They finished with a 612, well within reach for the Panthers.

Eastern Kentucky did not make up any ground and fell behind to finish 10th with a two-round score of 634.

Eastern competed against Tennessee Tech at the Butler Invitational on March 10-11 in Jacksonville, Fla.

The Golden Eagles finished fourth and the Panthers finished in sixth. But Eastern wasn’t far behind Tennessee Tech. The Panthers (644) finished just six strokes behind the Golden Eagles (638).

The key for the Panthers will be to remain consistent.

“The first round is key,” said Eastern head golf coach Mike Moncel. “You can win or lose the tournament in the first round.”

Eastern junior Carrie Riordan finished in a tie for fifth at the 2007 OVC Championships and earned OVC Tournament honors to lead the Panthers to a sixth-place team finish.

Riordan shot consecutive 79s in the first and second rounds of the 2007 OVC Championships but followed that with a third-round 77 to move into a tie for sixth.

This year, Riordan could challenge for an individual tournament title. She’s brought her stroke average down to 77.8 from 82.3 last year, which is the second best in the conference. Only Jacksonville State senior Mercedes Huarte has a better stroke average this season (77.0).

Moncel said Riordan has done several things to improve her golf game this season. She has more confidence, her short game has improved, she’s more mature and she has a lot more patience, he said.

But, Riordan isn’t the only Eastern golfer to improve this season.

Junior Katie Imburgia has also brought her stroke average down to 81.7 from 85.7. And senior Amy Simons, junior Michelle Anderson and sophomore Jaymie Voorhees have brought their stroke averages down.

While five teams are ahead of them in stroke average, the Panthers’ stroke average (321) isn’t that far off from even Murray State, which has the second-best stroke average (313.7).

“It comes down to short games,” Moncel said.

And the Panthers took that to heart with a putting practice on Sunday afternoon as one last final preparation for the OVC Championships.

Kevin Murphy can be reached at 581-7944 or at kjmurphy@eiu.edu.