PACE, Fla. --- Tusculum College senior and Harrisburg, Pa. native Aly Pugh is blogging this week from Pace, Fla. where the Pioneer Women's golf team is participating in the 2012 NCAA Division II South Regional:

Day 5 (Tuesday, May 8, 2012)
Our spirits were lifted after today's round. We arrived at the course around 7:45 a.m. I was the first one to tee off, followed by Sara, Katie, Jill, and Emee.

With being the first one off, I had no idea how well anyone was playing. After waiting for my teammates to finish, we found out that we had defeated both Newberry and UNC Pembroke, both of which had been ranked higher than us all season. Even more exciting, we beat the sixth ranked team in the country (Rollins) and we had to wait around afterwards because Emee was in contention for playing as an individual at Nationals.

Bad news came to us after the second wave of teams finished and found out that four girls had better scores than she did. However, I am an extremely proud teammate of hers because as a freshman, she had one of the best years in Tusculum history and I have extremely high hopes her in the future.

As my last blog, I would like to give a huge thanks to all the family and friends who have supported us during this crazy, historical journey and those who traveled to watch us play this past week. We could've never kept our spirits this high if it wasn't for you guys! This is one season I know we will never forget. We are truly blessed.

Thank you Pioneer Nation!!!

Day 4 (Monday, May 7, 2012)
Monday was a rough day on the course for our team. Our lowest score was carded by Jillian Corum, who shot a 76 (+4). We shot a team total of 314, which landed us in seventh place and we found ourselves once again playing with Newberry and UNC Pembroke, two of our regular-season rivals.

For dinner on Monday, we decided we wanted to take a "last dinner" trip to the beach. We found a nice little place right next to the beach called "Peg Leg Pete's." Again, we reminisced on this past golf season, talking about accomplishments or favorite memories. It was kinda a somber night - we realized our season was finally coming too an end and two of us (Katie & I) wouldn't be back next year.

The best moment of our evening is when Coach was caught telling the waitress it was my birthday when it really wasn't. For the last four years, it was a tradition for me to tell our waitress at restaurants that it was someone's birthday when it wasn't. You can't out-sneak the sneaky one though!

We got back to the hotel and headed straight to bed for what is going to be an early wake up time.

Later Pioneer Nation!!!

Day 3 (Sunday, May 6, 2012)
The only emotions I feel when writing this blog right now are joy and excitement. The day began around 8 a.m. when we met for breakfast in the lobby. The ride to the golf course was quiet - everyone was zoning while listening to their IPods.

The first tee time for us started at 10:06 a.m. with Katie Doane teeing off first followed by Sara Howard, myself, Emee Herbert, and lastly Jillian Corum.

In regards to the course, the wind picked up on the last few holes, making us work as hard as we could for our last few pars. Otherwise, there were many birdie opportunities, along with some challenging pin placements.

As our players finished their 18th hole, each one waited for the rest of their teammates to come in. This is when our most exciting news of the day happened - throughout most of the day, our team had been either in 1st or 2nd place and through 15 holes we were in 3rd. This news was mind blowing to us because of the fact that we were the last team to make it into regionals and here we are evenly squared with teams ranked in the top 10.

After all the scores had been posted, we found out that we are currently in 6th place, only five shots out of third and we only need to come in 3rd place to make it to the National Championships.

We ended our exceptional day by celebrating mine and Katie's graduation at Bonefish Grill. Never in a million years would we have ever thought we would not be walking the stage because of making Tusculum College history by going to regionals. We are both truly blessed that we were able to spend our graduation ceremony with our teammates and families, who we worked hard for all year long, in order to make this trip.

Now it is time to wind down for the rest of the evening as we have another challenging day tomorrow. "Focus on the process, not the outcome."

Goodnight Pioneer Nation!

Day 2 (Saturday, May 5, 2012)
Today was another long day. We went to breakfast around 9:45 a.m.After mingling with other teams and coaches, it was time to make our way to the course for our practice round. One thing we didn't prepare for were the bugs. Luckily in this intense heat, the course is flat by our East Tennessee standards, making for an easy walk.

The bermuda greens are not as grainy as the ones we have encountered in the past, which was a relief considering we are use to bent greens.

Our practice round came in under five hours. Everyone feels confident going into tomorrow after hitting the ball solid today. During regular-season, we typically play between 5800-5900 yards; however, for this tournament we are playing the course at over 6100 yards, a difference that didn't seem to be apparent to us during today's practice round.

Our good deed for the day came when we had a players meeting at 6 p.m. UNC Pembroke didn't get the time change memo and avoided penalty at our expense. Because it was so late in the evening, we decided to head straight to Firehouse Subs to eat a quick dinner before our nightly visit to the hot tub which brings us to now.

We are all confident and ready to give our all tomorrow to represent Tusculum College. Katie Doane and I would also like to give a shout out to those Tusculum College seniors who walked the stage today during graduation. We are saddened by the thought that we missed out on a prestigious ceremony in our lives; however, this is also a once in a life time opportunity and happy to be making Tusculum College history in Pensacola, Florida.

We are heading to bed for the evening. First tee time tomorrow beings at 10:06. For those who are interested, there will be live scoring every 3 holes tomorrow on www.golfstat.com. Check it out! Goodnight Pioneer Nation!

Day 1 (Friday, May 4, 2012)
We started our first journey to the NCAA Regionals this morning at 7 a.m. It was an extremely exciting feeling for the six of us (Coach Bob Dibble, Jillian Corum, Emee Herbert, Katie Doane, Sara Howard, and myself) since the Tusculum Women's golf team has never made it to regionals.

The 10-hour road trip was occupied with music, snacks, numerous naps, breakfast, conversation, memories of the season, and anticipation of the coming days.
Something we are still trying to get use to is the one hour time change that occurred when we crossed into the central zone. We arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn around 4:30 p.m.

After settling in, we cruised over to a restaurant called, "The Oar House.: We enjoyed a great team dinner on the waterfront next to a marina. Before leaving, we snapped a few pictures and didn't know if we would make it back to the hotel because Coach left the parking lot on the wrong side of the road with oncoming traffic in our way. No one was in danger as all hands made it back safely. You can imagine the many laughs that occur between five college females trying to navigate their antsy elder by GPS on their IPhones.

Tomorrow marks the beginning to an exciting experience - practice round at 12:30 p.m. The golf course we are playing at has a special significance - it is Bubba Watson's and Bo Weekley's home course.

We tweeted Bubba Watson earlier in the day in hopes that he will make an appearance sometime this week.

Good night Pioneer Nation and we'll talk to you again on Saturday.