After a record-breaking 2010-2011 season, the

ISU women’s golf team is excited to get back on course and back on

par with where it was last year.

Last year’s record-breaking season saw the

Cyclones slice their way up the national rankings, at one point

being ranked 15th in the national standings, a school record.

This year, the grass seems to be as green, or

perhaps greener, than last year as the Cyclones have several

returning starters that are sure to make an impact on the

course.

“So we’ve got Kristin Paulson, she is somebody

that is a senior this year, and who has played in a majority of

tournaments in her time,” said assistant coach Pina Gentile. “Prima

Thammaraks is another returner, so she is a sophomore this

year.”

Paulson will be starting the season with more

than just three years of collegiate golf experience; she also will

come in with the confidence that comes with winning

tournaments.

According Cyclones.com, Paulson recently won

her second straight Iowa Women’s Amateur championship

title. 

During the tournament, incoming freshman Beth

Wagner was able to capture third place overall, showing that the

2011-2012 Cyclones team has talent in both the veterans and novice

collegiate golfers.

Thammaraks also had an eventful summer. After

finishing her freshman year with All Big 12 first-team honors, she

participated at the 2011 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links

Championship in Bandon Dunes Golf Resort located in Brandon,

Ore.

She advanced to the round of 16 before she was

eliminated. She was the highest-finishing ISU golfer at the event

this year, according to Cyclones.com

It is important for the women’s team to stay

in shape over the summer and that is just what the team did,

Gentile said.

“The majority of them played in tournaments,

so it varied student-athlete to student-athlete, but a majority of

them played in anywhere from three to four events in the summer, if

not more,” Gentile said. “They each have done their own form of

conditioning, so our strength coaches will usually give them a kind

of a workout and they normally maintain it.”

The Cyclones’ season will start Sept. 12 with

a tournament in Tulsa, Okla., although their season

doesn’t officially start until the spring.