To advance to the NCAA championships, Kansas University’s women’s golf team must defeat 16 of 24 teams at the 2014 Central Regional tournament today through Saturday at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
It’s a feat the Jayhawks can accomplish, 10th-year coach Erin O’Neil says.
“I think it’s a very strong region. We certainly have a chance to finish in that top eight. UCLA, Arkansas, Alabama and Arizona are the four highest-ranked teams there. But to me, those next four spots could be anyone,” O’Neil said. “If we have a good week and play to the best of our abilities, there’s no reason it can’t be us.”
KU will bring its regular lineup of sophomore Yupaporn Kawinpakorn (74.41 average), senior Thanuttra Boonraksasat (75.59), freshman Pornvipa Sakdee (76.25), senior Meghan Potee (76.79) and junior Minami Levonowich (77.47).
“I think everybody has to do their part and play their game,” O’Neil said. “If they do that, we’ll be just fine. The biggest thing for us to keep in mind when playing the course is, it’s the kind of course you can have a few bad holes and start to feel you are out of it, and you are really not out of it.
“You have to hang in there, and you’ll be OK. I think it’s a good course for us, actually. I feel very optimistic.”
Other teams in a regional that will send eight squads and two additional individuals to the NCAA championships (May 20-23 at Tulsa Country Club) are, in order of seed: LSU (5th seed), Oklahoma State, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio State, Miami (Florida), Mississippi State, California, Kent State, KU, Texas, UNLV, Colorado, SMU, Minnesota, Harvard, Lamar, Wichita State, LIU-Brooklyn and Siena.
“We all feel good. We’re excited, been having a good time at practice,” O’Neil said. “We’re ready to go show everybody what we can do.”
Karsten Creek reminds the Jayhawks of Lawrence Country Club.
“The greens are bentgrass, and the rough is bentgrass, so we’ve been spending every day out here playing, doing execution-type drills where we have to work on pressure situations,” O’Neil said earlier in the week of LCC. “We’ve been focused on that and our short game and putting a lot. Being smart is the best thing we can do.”
The scores at Central Regional “will be higher than normal on this course,” O’Neil said. “That’s what we have to remember, to not hit the panic button if we have a couple bad holes, kind of hang in there and make those your worst (holes). It’s not super long. There will be some birdie opportunities out there, too.”
This is KU’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since the organization went to a three-regional format in 1993.
“I think they probably put pressure on themselves because they do want to keep this ball rolling,” O’Neil said. “I think we’re also excited to be in this position. We really don’t have anything to lose. We worked hard to get here. I’m hoping we go out, keep believing in ourselves and see what we can do. We haven’t had a tournament yet where everybody played up to their ability a single day. If we can get that to happen, we’ll be lights-out.”
The Jayhawks certainly are eager to get on the course and give the postseason their best effort.
“It definitely feels different. I mean, we’re going to the tournament for the first time, so everybody is all excited,” Boonraksasat said. “We are hoping to do our best. We have to keep everybody mentally in the right place, not to be too excited or carried away by how excited we are.”
