The goal is for Amy DeKock is to play 10 more competitive rounds of golf as a Jayhawk before her senior season comes to an end.
To squeeze in that many, a total that she and head coach Lindsay Kuhle derived, would require Kansas to not only advance out of its upcoming regional competition in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but make it all the way to the championship match at the conclusion of the national tournament on May 27 in Carlsbad, California. In short, the goal is aspirational.
But why not aspire? DeKock, a native of Palm Desert, California, who is averaging 73.2 strokes per round this year, is about to be one of the first KU golfers in the history of the women’s program — along with classmate Anna Wallin — to see her team reach regionals every year of her collegiate career. She didn’t play in the Athens Regional in Georgia as a freshman, but competed in the Cle Elum and Columbus regionals each of the last two years and will do so again in Ann Arbor with the rest of the Jayhawks beginning on Monday.
Kuhle has led KU to four straight postseason berths after the school had just one total under the current format before she arrived in 2021.
“I think this is exactly what we were hoping to build when we came to Kansas,” Kuhle said, “and just so excited for the girls to have another opportunity.”
The Jayhawks have a long way to go if they want to reach nationals in Carlsbad. They rank 38th nationally and are a No. 7 seed in the 12-team Ann Arbor Regional; the top five teams will advance to the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa. But then again KU was the No. 4 seed last year in Columbus, Ohio, when it won the entire regional and Lyla Louderbaugh claimed the individual title. DeKock said it feels like yesterday that the Jayhawks were standing on the podium with their “ticket punched” placard.
“It’s been a quick year, but what a blessing it is that we have another chance at it now,” she added.
There’s reason to believe they might have success once again. Kuhle points out that the Jayhawks had three top-five results this spring and finished strong at the Big 12 Championship. This is also the first year in which two KU players, those being Louderbaugh and Ebba Nordstedt, have received all-conference honors; they have led the way this spring after DeKock served as the top scorer for much of the fall. It’s a well-rounded group.
“I bring that up quite a bit at the end of our tournaments, (that) when we play our best golf it’s because all five players showed up and played, and we didn’t know which score we were going to throw out,” Kuhle said.
In addition, the University of Michigan Golf Course on which they will be competing — and where Kuhle once played herself at a junior tournament, an experience she is beginning to remember somewhat more vividly as KU prepares for the competition ahead — shares a designer and plenty of similarities with the Ohio State course on which they excelled last spring.
“I think we’re going to have a familiarity,” Kuhle said.
Not many Jayhawks of the past were able to develop the sort of familiarity with regional competition more broadly that DeKock and her teammates have. Even the decorated Yupaporn Kawinpakorn, for example, didn’t go to the postseason all four years of her career back in the mid-2010s.
“I think every year you play in it, you have more comfort and you know exactly kind of how it runs, the expectations, the pressure, the course,” Kuhle said, “so I think you feel more comfortable, just like anything, like a USGA championship or a state championship.”
That comfort level makes it easier for the Jayhawks to do what DeKock said was key to the Columbus title last season: treat the regional like it’s “just another tournament,” after they’ve played a wide variety of tournaments over the course of the year.
“My goal is really to get them to see all different types of teams that we’re going to compete against, different types of courses, and I feel like (with) that, right now is when it pays off,” Kuhle said.
DeKock said that the Jayhawks concentrate a lot on expressing gratitude, and understanding that so many schools around the country don’t get the chance to play in regionals at all — as KU is now doing year after year.
Now the question is whether their journey, and DeKock’s, will continue beyond Ann Arbor.
“It’s a touchy subject, because I don’t want to be done,” she said. “But I feel so prepared for this next journey where I’m playing golf professionally, because my coaches have prepared me so well. (Kuhle) has really helped me see how your golf game doesn’t just go into the way you play golf, but is (also) how you prepare for it. I feel so excited for these last two events because I know they’re big ones, but because I have so much support behind me too.”
