The next three days can arguably be the most important for the Eastern women’s golf team. The Panthers will be competing at the Ohio Valley Conference championship at the Hampton Cove Golf Course in Alabama from April 20-22.

Eastern will join the nine other OVC teams, who sponsor women’s golf, in the battle for the OVC crown. The other nine schools include: Austin Peay, Belmont, Eastern Kentucky, Jacksonville State, Morehead State, Murray State, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech.

Murray State won last year’s tournament for the ninth time in school history, and the first since 2010. Morehead State is arguably the favorite, after leading the OVC with 305.7 strokes per tournament this season. Meanwhile, the Racers weren’t far behind with 306.7 strokes this season.

Eastern coach Mike Moncel has chosen senior Tiffany Wolf, sophomore Alexandra Pickens, freshman Anne Bahr, freshman Annie Getzin and sophomore Chloe Wong as his starting five competitors for this tournament.

Getzin has lead the Panthers with an 82.4 stroke average, including a pair of top-ten finishes this spring. In March, she tied for eighth place at Butler and also tied for sixth at Southern Illinois. She also leads the Panthers, hitting 10-over-par this season.

Getzin said that the consistency the Panthers have shown as of late has been good news with the tournament coming up this week.

“This season we’ve been really good as a team,” Getzin said. “Last week at Southern Illinois-Carbondale we shot a 322, and Sunday at Indiana State we shot a 328. So it’s just getting into that consistency zone before OVC, which is good.”

Getzin finished third for the Panthers in last week’s tournament at Indiana State, with Bahr and Pickens finishing first and second for the Panthers. Bahr hit 19-over-par at Indiana State, and finished tied for 40th overall with 163 strokes.

Bahr’s efforts impressed Moncel, who also said that team’s recent consistency could be a big factor in the outcome of the tournament.

“I was very impressed by Anne’s play last week,” Moncel said.  “Our consistency has gotten better over the last two tournaments, so I expect we will play well. The will be the first time playing on this course, and since it’s a Robert Trent Jones Trail golf course, I expect it will be good and generally difficult around the greens.”

Bahr has hit for a season average of 85.9 strokes with a lowest round of 80 strokes, coming at Southern Illinois nearly a month ago. Wolf, the team’s veteran, has averaged 84.1 strokes per round and has hit 12-over-par this season, behind only Getzin.

Pickens has averaged 86 strokes per round this year, with a season low round of 80 strokes coming at Butler on March 24. She has hit 14-over-par this season, along with fellow sophomore Wong and the freshman Bahr.

This year’s tournament will be held on the Highland Course at Hampton. The course is a Par-72 course, and consists of 54 holes on 6,050 yards of green. Hole-by-hole live results from each day of the championship can be accessed through links at OVCSports.com, via the Eastern athletic website.

Blake Nash can be reached at 581-2812 or banash@eiu.edu