The record book was far from safe at the Ptarmigan Country Club during the Colonel Wollenberg Ptarmigan Ram Classic.
Colorado State and a couple of Ram golfers obliterated the record books and the competition and sent Sofia Torres off into the sunset during her final home tournament of her collegiate career.
Ad
“It’s great,” Torres said. “I was hitting my last driver, and I was just like, ‘Oh my god, this is my last hole — my last home tournament,’ and I was in shock for the last hole. My hands were shaking, and that last putt — it was so exciting and seeing the team waiting for me. That was great.”
Torres headed into the final day of competition tied with Colorado’s Sabrina Iqbal, a top 100-ranked golf amateur.
In the third round, Torres shot 68, Iqbal a 72.
“I knew it would be tight, but no doubt,” head coach Laura Cilek said. “I know she has the ability; you just can’t control the other player. I knew if Sofia came out and played her best golf like she did today, she’d have a really good shot, but you don’t know what the other players are going to do. I think any time she tees it up, she has a chance to win.”
A year ago at the same tournament, the Rams shot 854 as a team, good for 10 under par. Nevada took home first shooting 832, good enough for 32 under par.
“We all had that feeling that, ‘Oh, we can definitely win our home tournament,’” Torres said.
Saying the Rams won their home tournament would be doing the team an injustice for what they did on the golf course this year.
Shooting a 818, the Rams finished miles ahead of the competition. Colorado shot the next best shooting 837. The 818 strokes demolished the previously held 54-hole team finish school record of 849 strokes, which had been the record since 2015 at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown.
Propelled by their first round, shooting 264, the Rams smashed the records on day one. Their individual round of 264 beat the previous record in 2015 of 279 strokes that the Rams accomplished at the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown.
Ad
The team broke the score for the first 36 holes of a 54 hole tournament, shooting 535 strokes in rounds one and two, beating the 562 stroke record also set at the 2015 Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown.
Three Rams broke Katrina Prendergast‘s record of strokes in a 54-hole tournament, which she did at the UC Irvine Invitational in 2017, shooting 207. Torres shot 200, Pemika Arphamongkol shot 205 and Kara Kaneshiro shot 206.
Arphamongkol also broke the Rams’ record for best individual round, highlighting their historic first round shooting a 64, breaking Prendergast’s record of 65 that had stood since 2017. Arphamongkol said she was surprised when she found out she had broken the record.
“I was so surprised — I didn’t expect that,” Arphamongkol said. “Eight-under is my lowest, my best score so far, so I’m really, really happy.
The Rams now look ahead to the Dale McNamara Invitational Oct. 9-10 at the Golf Club of Oklahoma near Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Reach Damon Cook at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dwcook2001.
