Kansas Heads to San Antonio for Big 12 Championship
LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas women’s golf team will compete at the 2016 Big 12 Championship at the 6,333-yard, par-72 Dominion Country Club in San Antonio from April 22-24. Coming off of a third-place finish at the Red Raider Invitational, the Jayhawks will look to navigate the tree-lined Dominion Country Club toward another high finish.
“We’ve tried to check in on all parts of our game. We played a little this (past) weekend and shifted our focus more to an execution-type practice where we have to get some up-and-downs and practice a little pressure,” KU head coach Erin O’Neil said. “We worked on some tee shots, par-threes and trouble shots since the course at San Antonio is very tree-lined, and the chance of us being in some trees will be pretty good.”
Leading KU will be senior Yupaporn Kawinpakorn, fresh off of two-straight individual titles at the DAC/SMU and Red Raider Invitational. A three-time member of the All-Big 12 Tournament team, Kawinpakorn is looking for her first individual Big 12 title as well as a KU record-tying seventh career individual title. Her 2015-16 season stroke average of 71.23 leads the Big 12.
Junior Pornvipa Sakdee will build off her first top-10 finish of the season at the Red Raider Invitational at the same course where she shot an even 216 and placed fourth in the 2015 Big 12 Championship. Sakdee has improved her stroke average from 74.90 to 74.67 her junior year. Sophomore Pitsinee Winyarat is the remaining Jayhawk with Big 12 Championship experience. She finished 45th as a freshman in the 2015 Big 12 Championship. Winyarat has played on the team for all but one event in 2015-16, counting 16.5 of her 23 rounds.
For the first time since the 2008 Big 12 Championship, Kansas will compete with two true freshmen in Ariadna Fonseca Diaz and Victoria Chandra. Fonseca Diaz has competed for the team in all of its events and has counted 25 of her 26 rounds. Chandra has become a mainstay in the lineup, recording nearly a three-stroke improvement between her fall and spring seasons, from 80.5 to 77.3 strokes per round.
“Vicky and Ari are freshmen so they are a little naïve to some of what’s coming but they also have a lot of competition experience between their junior careers and what they have played so far this year,” O’Neil said. “I think they are excited, probably a little nervous, but that’s not a bad thing.”
One day will be dedicated to each of the tournament’s three rounds. The first three groups will tee off at 8 a.m. each day. Live stats can be found at GolfStat.com.
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