As captain junior Carly Livingston practices her swing in hopes to advance to the second round of Sections, she said the team is practicing real rounds on a course instead of their usual practice at a driving range.

Livingston said she expects Sections to be a long day of tough competition.

“We’re playing with people from not only our conference, but from our (entire) area,” Livingston said. “We’re playing at Ridges (at Sand Creek golf course). I think it’s a pretty tough course, but I have confidence in our varsity team because we did pretty good in conferences, so I think it’ll go well.”

According to girls’ golf coach Joe Yaeger, the team anticipates difficult competition at their first Section match.

“This competition is varsity sections preliminary finals. (Players) have to make finals to obviously get there, so basically for our four varsity girls, it’s the culmination going against what I would consider the state’s top schools, (such as) Edina and Wayzata,” Yaeger said.

Along with strong competition, Yaeger said the combination of the course and a large crowd will challenge the girls.

“The course itself is one of the most difficult ones they will play, but the other reason why it’s tough is because they are going to go against girls (they don’t know). Most (Park girls) won’t even know the other girls, so they will spend all day with (competitors) they just met,” Yaeger said. “A lot of spectators come to this (competition), it’s a huge ordeal based on schools.”

Yaeger said despite the challenges they will face, he expects the girls to be successful at the match.

“I think (Park) will do very well. We have a couple girls who are right on the verge of having breakout rounds and the other two girls are showing great improvement of what they are doing and what they have done already,” Yaeger said.

Livingston said she looks forward to playing against people she has never competed with before.

“I’m excited to see how our team plays matched up against other people that aren’t in our conference,” Livingston said.

Yaeger said the girls are preparing for Sections by focusing on their mentality and improving in individual weak areas.

“We are just going over the same things, mental preparations (and) understanding what (players) need to practice,” Yaeger said. “We are talking to them about previous matches where they felt their weakest parts were and then we concentrate on that.”

Sections takes place 11 a.m. June 1 at Ridges At Sand Creek golf course.