Kansas State University’s women’s golf team is preparing to compete in the Yale Invitational West, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at the Nicklaus Course at PGA WEST in La Quinta, California. The Wildcats, currently ranked 29th nationally, recently set a school record with a 54-hole score of 27-under par 837, finishing third in their last tournament.
The team aims to improve on its eighth-place finish from last year at this event. This will be Kansas State’s second appearance at the course known as The Western Home of Golf.
“We are looking forward to getting right back to competition at PGA WEST,” head coach Stew Burke said. “The Nicklaus Course hosted the PGA Tour American Express Championship, so we know it is going to be a tough test of golf. We will see a number of top teams in a tough field, which gives us the opportunity to test where we are nationally at the midway point of the spring. The ladies have played some nice golf individually – and in spells as a team – but we have not managed to put it all together as a group. It will be our job to put together a strategic plan of how to tackle each hole in the practice round and make sure that the ladies are ready to go and play freely from their first hole.”
Kansas State is one of five programs among ten competing teams that rank inside the top 50 nationally. Other top-ranked participants include Pepperdine (No. 10), Cal State Fullerton (No. 36), Virginia Tech (No. 37), and Kansas (No. 38). Additional teams participating are Colorado State, Gonzaga, Princeton, San Diego State, and Yale.
The Wildcats’ lineup features two sophomores and two freshmen alongside senior Noa van Beek. Van Beek recently secured her first collegiate win at the Westbrook Invitational with a school-record score of 14-under par 202 and was named Big 12 Golfer of the Week for her performance.
Van Beek leads Kansas State with an average score of 71.20 this season; her career average stands at 73.82, ranking third in program history.
Sophomores Kelsey Chen and Nanami Nakashima also maintain scoring averages below 72 this season—71.90 for Chen and 71.96 for Nakashima—while each has won individual titles in recent events.
Chen has achieved two top-five finishes this year, including a victory at the Puerto Rico Classic with a score of 10-under par 206.
Nakashima tied for eleventh place at the Westbrook Invitational with a total score of seven-under par 209; she has finished under par four times this season across three-round events.
Freshman Keen Visavapattamawan enters her seventh consecutive event as part of the scoring lineup with an average score of 73.60 after achieving four top-20 finishes during fall competition.
Freshman Casey Kang returns to scoring action for her fourth appearance this season; she previously tied for sixteenth place at last fall’s Powercat Invitational.
The tournament begins Monday with two rounds starting via shotgun start at 8:15 a.m., followed by Tuesday’s final round also beginning at that time. Live results will be available on SCOREBOARD powered by Clippd through the official athletics website.
