Senior Lori Beth Adams currently ranks among the nation’s top 65 golfers. In 2013, she was the CAA Women’s Golfer-of-the-Year and First-Team All-CAA selection, recording five top-five and eight top-10 finishes in 12 events played.

“There’s still more to accomplish as a team and as an individual this year. It’s just nice to finally get that win off my back this year and I’m sure that helped my rankings,” Adams said,  sitting in the media room of Trask Coliseum with Assistant Sports Information Director, Jarrett Abelson observing close-by.

While golf is not a family tradition, Adams says she started playing golf at the age of seven.

“My uncle [and] my dad got me into it,” Adams said. “My dad just took me to the driving range one day and [once] I hit my first shot– I’m like ‘This is what I want to do: I want to get better at this.’” 

The men and women’s golf season begins in the fall and continues through the end of the spring semester. There are four tournaments in the fall and five tournaments in the spring.

Adams says that spring season is more challenging, however.

“Spring’s more intense than the fall,” Adams said. “The fall is just like a little preseason going into it but it’s definitely important [in the spring].”

Adams and her teammates are currently preparing for the Conference tournament next week at the St. James Plantation in Southport at The Reserve Club.

Abelson notes, “It’s about 45 minutes away roughly.”

“It’s like our back yard, so we’re hoping to have some fans come out and support us,” Adams remarks.

When asked about her preparation for tournaments, Adams explains that she loosens up with  her teammates. 

“[We] just relax. We threw the football at River Landing at the parking lot of the hotel [and] I think that brought us good luck, so I think we’re gonna do this at conference and just–have fun,” Adams said.

Perfecting her golf swing was not always easy for Adams who reveals that she did not win rounds in junior golf until her senior year of high school.

“It took forever…I’ ve been through five instructors on swinging, so just trying to find the right [one] to get my swing when I was younger [took time],” Adams said.

To maintain her golf physique, Adams says she and her teammates work out daily, with the exception of Mondays.

“We work out Tuesdays [and] Thursdays in the mornings but then we just work on our own, and then I have an instructor–Jason Widener [whom] I’ve been going to him for five years now and he’s good,” Adams said. Widener is currently the men’s golf coach at UNC Wilmington.

There are currently eight members of the women’s golf team at UNCW. Adams clarifies that while she often practices a lot by herself, training with teammates is helpful as well.

“[Golf] is an individual sport and a team sport…it’s a very hard team sport,” Adams said.

Adams says that her favorite pro-golfers include Phil Mickelson, Paula Creamer, and retired golfer, Annika Sörenstam, adding that she has also played tournaments with newcomer, Jaye Marie Green.

Following graduation this December, Adams aspires to play professionally.

“I gonna–try to do some Monday qualifiers in the futures events, and then go to Q-school in September,” Adams said.

Q-School or qualifying school is the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the PGA and LGPA tours.

The LGPA Futures Tour or Symetra Tour is open to professional women golfers and qualifying amateurs, which Adams plans to pursue upon graduation.

“I’m going to move back home [to Burlington] for a few years and then [eventually] just go down to Florida,” Adams said. Florida is the home of The Futures Tour.

Adams, who stated that she prays before every game she tees off, says that her ultimate goal is to open a golf course for people with disabilities.