Thursday morning, the Cyclone women’s golf team, alongside a dozen other Big 12 golf squads, teed off to begin the Big 12 Golf Championship.
The championship opened Thursday morning and finished Saturday in order to determine 2024’s Big 12 Champions. Iowa State opened Thursday seeded at No. 8, paired alongside No. 7 Kansas and No. 9 Kansas State.
Two Cyclones golfers dominate Thursday
The Cyclones impressed all around Thursday. At the end of the day, Iowa State sat in a three-way tie for fourth place with Kansas State and Baylor. All held a score of 292, six over first-place Texas.
However, this fourth-place tie did not mark the most impressive performance by the team. That mark was held by Cyclone golfers Karisa Chul-Ak-Sorn and Liyana Durisic, who impressively finished Thursday in a three-way tie for first place among individuals.
Alongside Longhorn golfer Lauren Kim, the two Cyclones were two-under par at 69 for the first day of competition. These two impressive performances were a major factor in boosting the Cyclones to fourth place as a team.
The next closest Cyclone ranked in a tie for 17th place, with Tess Blair shooting a two-over par at 73 on the day. The other Cyclones present, Keeley Marx and Pammy Chookaew finished Thursday in a tie for 60th, at ten-over par.
Chul-Ak-Sorn leads Cyclones and Big 12 after day two
Friday morning, the teams and competitors picked up exactly where they left off Thursday. When play finished Friday afternoon, the Cyclones ended the day with a day two score of 283.
This 283, combined with their day one score of 292, clocked them at 575, a score that earned them a spot in third place. The Cyclones’ score was six strokes better than their former co-fourth-place finishers from Thursday.
Chul-Ak-Sorn took sole ownership of the first-place spot Friday. Chul-Ak-Sorn finished the day six-under par for Friday and eight-under par overall.
Meanwhile, Durisic slid slightly down the leaderboard, landing at third. Durisic finished three-under par for both days.
Durisic and Chul-Ak-Sorn finish first, lead Cyclones to runner-up finish
Ultimately, the Cyclones used their momentum and stellar performances from Thursday and Friday to capitalize and pull into a second-place finish as a team. Their Saturday performance had the team finishing four-over par, and 11-over par for the event as a whole.
Their final score stood at 863, a 12-stroke difference between them and the champion Texas Longhorns. While Texas opened the weekend as the No. 1 team, the Cyclones showed up and showed out as more of a shocking team with their second-place finish as the No. 8 seed entering the championship.
At the top of the individual leaderboards stood two Cyclones alone. After finishing in a tie for first on Thursday, Durisic and Chul-Ak-Sorn finished their big weekend by tying for the first place spot. Chul-Ak-Sorn did not leave the first-place spot at the end of any of the three days.
Both Chul-Ak-Sorn and Durisic finished with a final score of 207, six-under par.
The next event for the Cyclones women’s golf team could be an appearance in NCAA Women’s Golf Championship regional play, where 12 teams in six different regions and an additional six individuals will compete in a bid to earn their shot at the golf championship. However, selections for this event will not be made until May 24th.
