KSU women’s golf victorious at Lady Puerto Rico Classic

Zachary McKnight

The women of Kent State golf put together another solid outing at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic as the Flashes won the 14-team tournament by four strokes.

The Flashes, who are ranked No. 11 in the country, finished two over par with a team score of 866 over 54 holes at the end of the three-day tournament Tuesday. 

Kent State started with a 292 in the first round, which was three strokes off the lead. The Flashes were able to leapfrog into first with a combined team score of 288 in the second round, the best score of the round.

“We got off to an extremely fast start in the second round,” coach Greg Robertson said. “It helped that we started at the easy part of the golf course.”

The Flashes were tied for second with a 286 in the third round, finishing only one stroke behind Arkansas and Northwestern for first place.

Karoline Stormo led the team with the tied for lowest combined score over the three rounds with a seven-under 209. Stormo recorded scores of 69 (three under par), 71 (one under par) and 69 (three under par) over the three rounds.

“I played my whole game,” Stormo said. “I hit a lot of good approach shots for a couple birdie opportunities.”

Robertson said her work ethic is the reason behind her recent success. She finished second at the UCF Challenge and first at the Classic.

“She’s the hardest worker on the team, not afraid to put in a lot of overtime,” Robertson said. “She’s been playing with a lot of confidence, and it is nice to see her hard work coming together.”

Pimnipa Panthong bounced back from a slow first round with a combined score of 216, which was tied for fourth.

“It was nice to see Pim have a solid round since her play has been solid but not up to her standards,” Robertson said.

The women outlasted eight other ranked teams to win: No. 7 Arkansas, No. 13 Northwestern, No. 21 TCU, No. 29 Purdue, No. 35 University of Georgia, No. 45 Iowa State, No. 48 Augusta and No. 50 North Carolina State.

The team’s next tournament is in The Woodlands, Texas for the University of Houston Invitational Feb. 25 to 26.

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