Girls golf: Schuldt wins IWGA Junior title

The summer golf season hasn't gone quite as well as Ember Schuldt had hoped for. She sure turned that around this week.

The recent Sterling High School graduate and Illini recruit won the Illinois Women's Golf Association's Junior Girls Championship for the second time in three years on Wednesday, shooting 15-under par on the University of Illinois' Orange course.

"This summer's not been quite up to what I wanted, but I'm slowly getting back to where I think I should be," Schuldt said. "Winning this tournament again has definitely boosted my confidence, and I feel like I have it peaking at the right time for the fall season at Illinois. It's a good time to be playing well right now."

Schuldt, who won the tournament in 2008 before losing to Lincoln's Katherine Hepler in a playoff last summer, shot an opening-round 68 on Tuesday and followed it up with a 69 on Wednesday on the par-76 course. Her total of 137 blew away the field, with Hepler coming in second with a 144, seven shots back.

Schuldt said it was all about hitting the ball straight and giving herself eagle opportunities, while at the same time limiting her number of bogeys. She made two eagles and "just a few" bogeys, adding in numerous birdies and pars.

"I just kept making birdies and pulling away," Schuldt said. "It's fun to get a big lead; I only like the close ones when I'm trying to catch up, and I'm not a big fan of the neck-and-neck tournaments.

"Having that lead, I was able to be more aggressive and take some shots I wouldn't normally take, just to see what I could do with them."

Even better for Schuldt, who hasn't played in as many tournament this summer in anticipation of a busy fall season at the University of Illinois, is the fact that she played so well on a course where the Illini sometimes hold qualifiers.

"It was definitely a good experience for me to play well on that course," she said, "because it will only help me if I'm playing a qualifier there in the future."