Consistency, confidence lock down runner-up finish

Lauren Hedrick

Consistency and confidence continue to be the name of the game for the No. 28 ISU women’s golf team.

The Cyclones brought home a second-place finish at the Marsh Landing Invitational in Pointe Vedra Beach, Fla., on Tuesday, tying the second-lowest 54-hole score in school history with a count of 865.

The team faced a talented 20-team pool with five other teams ranked in the Golfweek/Sagarin top 50. Although several Cyclones finished below par, the team fell to No. 11 Purdue by eight strokes.

Senior Punpaka Phuntumabamrung paced the Cyclones while she posted the lowest 54-hole score of her career with 213 strokes, matching the third-lowest 54-hole score in school history and tying her for third overall. This marked Phuntumabamrung’s 11th top-10 finish of her career and her third of the season.

“I felt really good this weekend. Technically, my game was not much different, but my mental game was way different,” Phuntumabamrung said.

Throughout the year, Phuntumabamrung admitted that she has struggled to maintain a positive, confident mental attitude throughout tournaments. However, with this score, she feels ready for the upcoming Big 12 tournament.

“It’s really helped me build up confidence and feel confident about my game and I can bring it to Big 12 next week,” Phuntumabamrung said. “It’s great to shoot under par.”

Junior Sasikarn On-Iam finished the meet in a tie for eighth place after a three-round 217 — her first top-10 finish of the season and the fifth of her career. On-Iam said that her confidence aided her successful finish.

“I think that it helped me a lot thinking about the shot in front of me and not thinking about what happened at the last hole,” On-Iam said.

On-Iam fired a 69 in her third round to move her up in the top-10 standings.

“The last day, I felt a lot more confident and totally focused,” On-Iam said. “Some of my holes were bogeys, but without my confidence, they could have been way worse.”

The Cyclones came close to meeting their pre-meet goal of breaking 285 strokes in each round, only shooting one over in the third round.