For the past two years, coach Dan Wolf's West Fargo Packer girls' golf squad has been led by a youth movement. Now, those young players are starting to mature, and Wolf is hoping this is the season the Packers feel the positive effects of maintaining nearly the same team each of the past three seasons.

";I think you can see the biggest change in the way our top four are approaching the game,"; Wolf said. ";There's a maturity. They know that when they hit a bad shot, they can take a step back, relax and recover from that.";

The 2005 season provides a prime opportunity for the Pack's top four golfers; 2003 All-Conference member and now freshman Krista Weiszhaar, junior Haley Nudell (last year's team MVP), junior Alexa Kleingartner and junior Rachel Western. With Fargo North graduating a trio of seniors that consistently posted the best team scores in the region last year, and the Fargo South Bruins experiencing their first season without a Dahl sister on the squad in nearly six years, the door is open for the rest of the Eastern Dakota Conference.

";There's no clear-cut favorite out there,"; Wolf said. ";South will still be strong. North is always solid and Shanley will be good as well. But the opportunity is there for us to be in the top four or five this season. And we think we can post some strong finishes in some tournaments.";

Part of that falls on Western, who emerged last year in her sophomore season as the clear No. 4 player in the Pack's composite score. With Weiszhaar and Nudell playing well and No. 1 and No. 2, and Kleingartner strong at No. 3, the Packers were seeking a strong fourth player in the rotation. Western came through, and played her way into the state tournament as the Packers finished sixth in the conference last season.

With some experience and maturity, Wolf thinks the Packers can move up through the ranks. The key is in the mental aspect of the game.

";I think this season, more so than maybe my first couple of years, this year will be about the mental approach,"; Wolf said. ";Our top two (Nudell and Weiszhaar) had the game mechanically, but needed to show the mental part of the game. The other two had some things to be worked out in their swing. Now, it's really just getting in the right frame of mind.";

The Packers will be tested early. They kicked off the season on Monday morning at the Fargo South Invitational at Rose Creek Golf Course. On Tuesday, they headed north to Grand Forks for the Red River Invite, held at King's Walk Golf Course. King's Walk, incidentally, will be the home of this year's State A Golf Meet, held the first week in October.

The Packer girls moved back to Village Green Golf Course in Moorhead this season due to heavy rains that flooded out Maple River Golf Club last June. As a result, the Pack's only home tournament of the year will also be at that course, which has been recently redesigned. Wolf said his players are adjusting well to the course, and the first week of practice, which started on Aug. 8, went well.

";We had some girls get out and play over the summer, and I think having Osgood Golf Course (in south Fargo) open really helped. A lot of the girls live pretty close to there and I know they got out and played. Also, having (club professional) Lisa Schwinded there has helped. With girls, sometimes it's how the lesson is handled as much as the lesson itself, and hearing it from Lisa maybe made them more comfortable because they know she's been through this before.";

Schwinden was a standout golfer with Shanley High School in the late 1990s. Osgood, which opened in June, is located just east of West Fargo about a mile off of Sheyenne Street between West Fargo and Horace.

Wolf said numbers in the program are again on the rise. West Fargo brought 15 golfers out for the regular season, the most in more than five years, Wolf said. The job now is get quality players in the program, which Wolf hopes he can continue even after the three big juniors on this squad are gone in two seasons.

The Packers will now gear up for the Jamestown Invite on Friday, their third meet of the week. Wolf said the busy schedule will help his girls get into the swing of things.

West Fargo will travel to Wahpeton, Valley City and Devils Lake before hosting the West Fargo Invite on Sept. 14.