Jasmin Espinosa BROWNSVILLE – Just two weeks ago, the UTRGV Women’s golf team earned its first-ever Southland Golf Championship.
Puthita Khuanrudee, associate head coach for the UTRGV Women’s Golf team, spoke on how the Vaqueros are preparing for their NCAA Regionals in a couple of weeks.
“This is the first year that coach Moore took over, and this is my first year working here and we already [won] conference,” Khuanrudee said. “We [are] coming and we [jumped] from last year.” … “We [jumped] like 20, 25 spots, I think, and we’re going to keep jumping more. We’re going to keep progressing, and we’re going to work harder and harder every day.”
Under the leadership of Houston Moore, the director of golf, and Khuandrudee, the Vaqueros came home with the championship after a clutch par putt from Miriam Barcalova, a sophomore golf player.
According to UTRGV Athletics this is the program’s second conference championship after winning the Great West Conference championship in 2009, but this is the first-ever with an automatic qualifier.
“It’s really nice to get here the first year right off the bat and also knowing we’re the underdog going into conference, and we did it and like me and coach Moore, coached till the last putt dropped,” Khuandrudee said. “So, when did that last drop, we, everything went crazy. [We had] lots of laughs, a lot of joy [and] a lot of tears.”
Following its victory, the team will be back in action with sights set on the NCAA Regionals.
The Vaqueros have been working on their skills to improve their control ball flight, manage distance and wedge playing to limit mistakes.
“We have stat meetings and we work on like on the beginning of the semester,” Khuandrudee said. “We have a really large gap on the pro shot, and we narrowed that gap. Our wedge play got so much better at a time.”
“We have a certain goal for each practice,” Khuandrudee said. “So, we just take it one step at a time and, do our best.”
Barcalova said regionals will give the team an opportunity to showcase what it has been working on during practice. Her focus is enjoying the moment and doing the best she can.
“I personally want to go into just having fun and just set ourselves up for the best result possible,” Barcalova said. “I honestly don’t think I have a score expectation because I know a lot of good teams are going, but I definitely believe in us. I believe that we have a chance, and I believe we just proved that as well.”
On Wednesday, the Vaqueros will find out who they will compete against during the NCAA selection show.
