#CUWStatsInfo: Can Nina Puch win another NACC Women's Golf title?
MEQUON, Wis. – It is safe to say Concordia University Wisconsin Women's Golf has been at the forefront of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Championship over the past six years. As well, the Falcons have had an individual reign atop the leaderboard for seven-consecutive seasons.
During the past three seasons senior Nina Puch (Des Plaines, Ill.) has won NACC Championship medalist honors in consecutive seasons and was runner-up her rookie season. With the three-day, 54-hole league championship set to begin on Friday; CUWFalcons.com took at the statistics and came up with a few notes to know.
4 – The Falcons have won four of the past six NACC Championships, so there experience heading into the tournament will help them handle the pressure. They won back-to-back titles twice (2013-12, 2010-209). During those title winning seasons, they won by a combined 174 strokes over 43.5 strokes. During the 2012 NACC Championship they won by a tournament record 104 strokes.
25 – Puch has won the past two NACC Championship medalist honors by a combined 25 strokes. Last season she won by 10 strokes and was ahead by an easy 15 strokes in 2013. The powerful righty is nearly a three-time champion, but was three strokes shy of tying her teammate (Jordan Osowski) for medalist honors during her rookie season in 2011.
77.0 – If there ever was a time to be peaking with the biggest tournament of the season on the horizon, now is the perfect time. Puch is averaging a 77.0 over her last 54 holes, which includes a career-low 71 (include her first career eagle) in the opening round of the UW-Whitewater Fall Classic last weekend. She also had a pair of 80s during the impressive stretch.
82.5 – The NACC scoring average leader enters the Championship with an 82.5 strokes per round average, which is 2.7 better than her next closest competitor. Just one event this season of the six Puch has competed in, she has bettered by NACC foes. She has won four events, placed second in another and tied for ninth. The only tournament where a NACC golfer has gone lower than Puch was the Elmhurst Invitational when she tied for ninth and five league foes had a better round.
84.47- Puch is averaging an 84.47 during NACC Championship rounds, which is the main reason why she consistently finds herself atop the leaderboard in the highest pressure situations. Her career round at the tournament was a 74 in the second round in 2012 and last season she fired an unwavering 82-83-84 (249) total.
250? – While individual driving statistics are not kept in Women's Golf, having seen Puch play during practice rounds it is not uncommon to see her bomb close to 250-yard drives. Yet, another reason why she can be so dominant at times. When watching her you will notice parts of her swing seem eerily similar to a hockey swing and you are correct. When the winter weather falls on the links, she switches her attention to the ice rink and her hockey career.
