Kansas State women's golf ready for historic first NCAA Championship appearance

The sense of history was not lost on members of the Kansas State women’s golf team as they prepared for the program’s first-ever trip to the NCAA Championship this week at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California.

That’s not to say that the Wildcats are intimidated by the task at hand. Not after the way they played to reach their goal with a second-place finish two weeks ago at the Lexington (Ky.) Regional.

“It’s super cool,” senior Sophie Bert said of finally making it to nationals. “I have not been to nationals either, so then to have it as a K-State history thing, it’s amazing.

“Now we are indeed at the table, and then we can show them what we’ve got.”

The tournament consists of 54 holes of stroke play, Friday through Sunday, with the 30-team field trimmed to 15 in addition to the top nine individuals from non-advancing teams. The final round of stroke play Monday will determine the individual champion as well as the eight teams that advance to the match play quarterfinals.

Kansas State senior Sophie Bert follows through on a shot during the final round of the NCAA Lexington Regional on May 7 in Lexington, Ky.

The timing of K-State’s first appearance at nationals could not have been better for Bert, an East Tennessee transfer from Belgium whose season highlight was claiming medalist honors at the Big 12 Tournament.

But the only Wildcat with national tournament experience is Carla Bernat, a senior from Spain, who qualified last year as an individual. She has taken her game to another level this season by winning three tournaments, including the prestigious Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the NCAA Lexington Regional while finishing second to Bert in the Big 12.

Bernat, the Big 12 player of the year, also is familiar with the par-72, 6,330-yard Omni La Costa course after playing there last year.

“It’s pretty much brand new. The greens were really hard last year,” Bernat said. “It kind of challenges everything in your game. You have par 3s that are long, and you have par 5s that are not really reachable.

“You need to have a really good short game. And the greens are, of course, fast, so you need to be good at everything in that golf course.”

K-State coach Stew Burke accompanied Bernat to nationals last year, so between them they were able to share some course knowledge with the rest of the team during Thursday’s practice round.

“It’s great because Carla made some mistakes last year on some of the holes,” Burke said of the experience. “So, for us, we were a little bit more tuned in on certain holes because we knew you could make a mistake pretty easily out there.

“This is a national championship, so they’re going to set it up pretty hard and reward good golf.”

In addition to Bernat and Bert, K-State’s lineup features junior Noa van Beek, sophomore Alenka Navarro and freshman Nanami Nakashima, with Julia Ballester Barrio serving as the alternate.

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on X (formerly Twitter) at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State women’s golf embraces historic NCAA Championship debut

Kansas State women’s golf ready for historic first NCAA Championship appearance

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