Purdue, August Kim Come Up Just Short at NCAA Championships

Headed into today Purdue (as a team) and August Kim (as an individual) had a chance to advance in the NCAA women’s golf championships. The top 8 teams after today’s final round would advance to match play, while Kim was in contention for individual medalist honors.

It wasn’t quite meant to be, however. Kim would drop her second eagle of the tournament and finish at 2 over par 74 today. That was good enough to finish 3 over par for the tournament in a tie for fourth place individually. Arizona State’s Monica Vaughn won individual medalist honors with a +1 for the tournament.

As a team, Purdue entered today two strokes out of the final transfer spot in a cluster of teams. The tough course caused problems for everyone except Arizona State and Alabama. Alabama fired a -1 as a team, but was too far back to have it mean much. Purdue was +16 for the day and finished in 11^th place at +61 for the tournament. Kent State held the 8^th and last spot to the match play finals at +55, and that was after losing 6 places today with a +24 on the day.

Purdue should once again be solid next season, as Covadonga SanJuan, Ida Ayu Indira Melati Putri, and Marta Martin all return with championship experience. Kim closes her career after being the 2016 individual Big Ten champion and a two-time individual NCAA finalist.

Purdue finished 11th as a team despite a No. 24 ranking coming in. They finished ahead of No. 9 Furman, No. 2 Alabama, No. 5 Florida State, and No. 8 Duke as top 10 ranked teams.