With Pinehurst No. 8 and the ACC Championships awaiting them over Easter weekend, the women’s golf team has been adjusting accordingly to match its demands.

Among the changes are a few additions to their shot selection and subtractions from the grass on the green, a feature that makes any Pinehurst course difficult for even the best in the sport.

“We learned a lot of new shots to have more options under pressure some work better than others,” sophomore Stephanie Derrey said. “If you try to flop a shot, it’s harder under pressure than trying a bump-and-run.”

Coach Page Marsh said she hopes that by adding to its arsenal, her team can do a better job of decision making when it travels to the North Carolina Sandhills.

“When you walk up in golf, every time it’s something different, so you just need to pull from your repertoire. And I’m just trying to help build their repertoire so they can under pressure pull from it and pick the right shot to hit,” Marsh said.

“I just noticed we were not picking good percentage shots, so I needed to do a better job in practice so [that] they are choosing those shots.”

Marsh said she has also prepared her team by trying to simulate the tricky greens of Pinehurst. Throughout the season, she stays in cohorts with Bob Erickson, the Director of Golf Turf Management so he and his staff can liken the facilities as close to what the team will be playing on as possible.

“For the last month we’ve been practicing for Pinehurst No. 8, which features a lot of domed greens and the ball runs off the side. You usually choose not to hit your sand wedge. So we’ve been practicing hitting your putter, 3-wood and 4-iron more like a putting style so it stays on the ground,” Marsh said.

Erickson oversees the Lake Wheeler Road facility, as well as the short game facility.

“What I normally do is communicate directly with the golf coaches and [see] if they have any specific needs that need to be done,” Erickson said. “Then, they let me and the staff that I have know that and we’ll accommodate them.”

For instance, if greens need to be slower, he cuts the grass longer — and vice versa.

“A lot of [Pinehurst’s] green surrounds are very tight, and the grass is mowed very low so they can actually putt from the green surrounds onto the green. I lowered the mowing heights at their request,” Erickson said.

Junior Nancy Mountcastle, a player from Wallace, N.C., said the team and coaches have worked together to change practice regiment several times to meet the demands of what needed to be addressed since the spring.

“Coach [Marsh] has really perfected our practice. We tell her the stuff we need to work on, and she’ll set up the drills and set up different shots and stuff to help get better,” Mountcastle said. “Stuff that we have during the round that we don’t know how to do well, like downhill chips or difficult shots out of the bunker or a flop shot.”

By keeping in touch with Erickson and her team, Marsh said she plans on bettering the results at the ACC Championships.

“We’ve had good practices all year, but they’ve really been building in momentum. And the players have helped tweak them and make them so that they’re helping them more and more as they play,” Marsh said.