Head Coach Dan Wood stands on the shaded fringe of the green, the pin held steady in his left hand, watching junior Christie O’Shea and freshman Brooke Llobell prepare their par putts on the eighth green at the Country Club of Ithaca. Wood doesn’t react to their shots, but as they move to the next tee box, he talks to them about remembering the contours of the greens and jokes with them about new clubs they’ve bought over the summer.

As a member of the Professional Golf Association and a former Senior PGA Tour champion, Wood’s insight is important to the team and may be even more so with this being the program’s inaugural varsity season.

“When I sound like I’m lecturing the girls, I’m saying, look, you have a chance to be part of something,” Wood said. “You are the initiators of what we hope will be a well-respected women’s golf program.”

Returning three upperclassmen from last year’s nonvarsity squad — senior Laurel Stinson and juniors O’Shea and Lauren Ryan — the team welcomes the addition of several freshmen to the mix. Doubling the team’s size, freshmen Llobell, Samantha Liberty and Jackie Young give the team depth as well as a solid foundation to build from, which is crucial on a team still looking to add new talent.

“You can tell that Jackie, Brooke and Sam are ready to put in the energy to make Ithaca a good golf team,” Ryan said. “We are all kind of at the same level, so we push each other in a way to do better as a team rather than individually.”

With five positions available in tournament play each weekend and six players competing for a slot, teammates can challenge each other from shot to shot and ultimately increase the level of play.

“I can’t speak for the freshmen, but I know that the three of us who are coming back all have a little bit of a competitive nature,” O’Shea said. “Golf’s more competitive with yourself than others, but now the competition’s up, so I’m curious to see what happens.”

Wood views the roster size as a significant contributor to how the team will eventually take shape and continue to progress in competition.

“What I’m trying to establish this year, as opposed to last year, is a little more coaching for competition,” Wood said. “What we’ll try to gear up for is to get everybody warmed up, healthy and ready to go for Saturday and Sunday.”

In the middle of the fairway, there’s talk between O’Shea and Llobell about which club should be used, before O’Shea selects her newly acquired 3-wood from her bag and drives the ball onto the right side of the green.

“It’s nice that everyone has their different strengths and weaknesses,” Ryan said. “So now we’re all kind of in a circle now, it’s easier to practice and learn.”

Acknowledging that everyone will be an integral part in the team’s expected success, the women are ready to prove that they can be a competitive force despite it being their inaugural varsity season.

“We want to come out and show the other teams we’re serious, even though it’s only our first or second year,” O’Shea said. “We want to be just as competitive as any other team, and I know Coach has that same thing in mind.”

With establishing competitive play as the first and foremost goal, Wood hopes the team will eventually succeed in the Empire 8 Conference and contend with other top Division III programs in the Northeast.

“Christie likes to tease me that I have too much of a Division I mentality, but let’s face it, Ithaca College has been very successful in sports,” Wood said. “Ithaca has a long tradition of excellence, not only academically but athletically, and right now golf is on the bottom of the totem poll.”