Two of a kind

By Gus Bode

The SIU women’s golf team captured its seventh Missouri Valley Conference title under the leadership of two seniors.

The Salukis were in first place at the end of each day of the three-day tournament Tuesday, anchored by seniors Josie Lowder and Samantha Sutzer.

Lowder led the Salukis at the tournament shooting a 7-over-par 223, third best in the tournament. Lowder, sophomore Braidy Hood and junior Kelly Gerlach were each named to the All-Conference Team at the end of the tournament.

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Lowder and Sutzer played in their last conference tournament of their collegiate careers. Lowder, a Petersburg native, said her grandfather’s passing enabled her family to move near a country golf course in Petersburg. Lowder said her house was located near some cornfields and she compared the town to Carbondale.

Lowder said it was the change in scenery that sparked her interest in golf.

“I just started hitting balls across the street,” Lowder said. “It wasn’t a big thing in my family, but my dad started coaching me. I played golf in high school and the rest is history, I kind of started on my own, really.”

In high school, Lowder won the state championship as a junior and opted to go to Alabama her freshman year of college.

After one year at Alabama, Lowder said she got homesick and was unsure if she wanted to play golf anymore so she decided to give her friend Sutzer a call.

“I called her and I was like, ‘What could your coach do for me?'” Lowder said. “So I talked to coach, and coach Diane [Daugherty] was very open to me coming here and everyone was awesome. Me and Sam had played together since we were really little and it was just an easy change for me.”

Once at SIU, Lowder earned All-Conference honors in 2005, led the team in stroke average with 78.2 and shot a career-low 230 at the MVC tournament as a sophomore.

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Sutzer said her father was her inspiration to become a golfer. Sutzer’s dad is a professional golfer and she said she would get up at 6 a.m. to go to the course with him.

Sutzer, a Springfield native, was a two-time State Journal-Register Girl’s Golfer of the Year and finished third in the state as a senior.

Daugherty and how close Carbondale is from Springfield were keys in Sutzer’s decision to come to SIU, Sutzer said.

“SIU was my last of four visits and I just had this feeling,” Sutzer said. “Coach was awesome and I really like the campus. So I went with it and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.”

In the 2007 MVC tournament, Sutzer shot a 16-over-par 232, finishing 12th overall.

Daugherty said sophomore Braidy Hood had a surprising explanation to how she shot an MVC record 68 in the third round.

“I said, ‘What in the world were you doing out there?'” Daugherty said. “And she said ‘I was thinking a lot about Josie and Sam and I didn’t want this to be their last tournament.’ I thought that was a great answer.”

Senior Abbigail Johnson did not compete in the MVC tournament because she was unable to qualify.

Johnson hails from Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., and finished 28th in the MVC tournament last year.

SIU waits to see where it will be traveling to for the NCAA regionals. The announcement will be made April 30.

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