(Kerrville, TX) – Grand Canyon golfer Siripatsorn Patchana became the first two-time winner of the WAC Championships in a decade when she took the conference title Wednesday as the tournament’s only player to break par.
Patchana, a fifth-year graduate from Bangkok, Thailand, punched her ticket to an NCAA regional by shooting 1 under par in each of the three rounds at Riverhill Country Club in Kerrville, Texas. Patchana won the WAC Championship as a freshman to help the Lopes take the 2018 team title and repeated the medalist feat in her final conference tournament on Wednesday.
“From then, I just knew I had to keep working on my game to get back to it and this year I came back with a lot of expectations,” Patchana said. “This time, I wanted to have fun on the course and just enjoy my last year more than going out and trying to win it. I think that helped a lot to help me play well this week and win.”
Patchana held a share of the lead after Monday’s first round and entered Wednesday with the two-round lead by one stroke over New Mexico State’s Amelia McKee.
“My feelings were reassuring me that I could do it,” said Patchana, a Sports Psychology graduate. “I felt less pressure on the course. I had more control and played better under pressure.”
McKee took the individual lead Wednesday by one stroke when Patchana putted off the 10th green to lead to a bogey. But playing several holes ahead of McKee, Patchana shook that off with quality pars at Nos. 11 and 12 before sticking her approach shot within 2 feet at the par-5 13th hole for a birdie.
“I started gaining my momentum back and hitting good shots,” Patchana said. “I was building up confidence again.”
Patchana played the final eight holes at 2 under to take a commanding lead that she did not know she held it until after making a 10-foot birdie at No. 16 and a par at No. 17.
“After I birdied 16, it gave me a reassuring feeling that at least I did my best and I don’t regret anything in my round,” Patchana said of waiting for McKee to finish. McKee bogeyed No. 15, leaving a three-hole deficit with three holes to play that she did not close.
In four WAC Championships, Patchana won twice and finished in third place and fourth place in the other two years. She is the first two-time WAC champion since Kayla Martellaro of Idaho repeated in 2012.
“I’m so proud of Siri and what she has done this week,” GCU head coach Lauren Giesecke said. “We knew she was going to have a breakout year and this is the proof. She is an amazing golfer and deserves this so much. To begin your career at GCU by winning the WAC Championship, then ending your career by winning the WAC Championship is something that not a lot of athletes can say they have done. Winning a college tournament is a huge accomplishment and to do it when it really counts means even more.
Patchana was the only two-time WAC Player of the Month this season and had been all over spring leaderboards, taking third in Bakersfield, California, and fourth at the GCU Invitational before finishing as runner-up in Sedona at the Red Rocks Invitational. She broke through this week, limiting herself to four bogeys over 54 holes.
The 55-player field saw seven below-par rounds with Patchana posting three of them.
“Her composure this week was truly amazing and inspiring,” Giesecke said. “She kept her mindset on winning and enjoying the moment and it paid off.
“I’m very excited to hear where Siri will be placed for regionals and ready to take the field on. Nationals is right in our backyard so we have some work to continue doing, but Siri is ready to go.”
As a team, GCU finished fourth in the WAC Championship. The Lopes were five strokes behind third-place Seattle U. New Mexico State won the title, continuing to make GCU the only program to win a WAC title besides NMSU since 2014.
GCU senior Madison Voisard moved into a tie for 20th place when she birdied her final hole to finish at 1-over 73, the sixth-best round of the day. Wednesday’s round also included a hole-in-one from senior Alexis Linam on the par-3 second hole.
Press Release courtesy of Grand Canyon University Athletics – Paul Coro
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