Sarah Yoo sank her last putt and walked to her teammates not knowing if her team had won the Big West Championship. Then she heard the screaming.
Yoo joined Cal Poly Women’s Golf after they won their third championship in a row. Her expectations were high, but what followed was disappointment, as Cal Poly failed to win the Big West in her first two years.
“I remember my first year coming into the Big West, everyone had a lot of expectations,” Yoo said. “Everyone was expecting us to win, especially having won three times in a row in the past. When we didn’t win and when I didn’t play good my first year, it definitely was a bit crushing.”
In her third season with the team, Yoo led the Mustangs to Cal Poly’s fifth Big West Championship at Ka’anapali Golf Course in Maui, Hawaii, with a final score of 866. Winning the Big West Championship automatically qualified the Mustangs for the NCAA Regional tournament, where the five top placing teams and lowest scoring individual at each site advance to the National Championship.
Yoo was the highest placing member of the team at the tournament, finishing in fourth place and was one stroke off tying her career low.
“I hope my old teammates are proud of me, the ones that have won consecutive times,” Yoo said. “This is what it feels like to win. It’s just truly ecstatic, especially with the team and an individual sport. It’s just something different. It makes me want more.”
Yoo explained how she was able to come back from a rough start at Cal Poly.
“After you deal with a lot of downs, you either just sulk or you just accept it and learn from it and move on and I think I did a pretty good job,” Yoo said. “Even if I played bad, the next round and then the next round and the next round I was thinking to myself, I didn’t let that hurt my mental.”
Underdogs going into the championship
The Mustangs were the fifth seed, out of nine teams, going into the tournament. Going into the tournament with no expectations turned out to be the best thing for them.
Sophomore Nicole Koong, who finished in fifth place at the tournament, said, “Honestly, I didn’t have any expectations at all. Golf is just a crazy game in that way where you never know what can happen.”
The two other scorers on the team were freshmen Alex Flier and Maddy Saysanasongkham, who shared a room in Hawaii. They recalled their conversation the night before the championship was decided.
“Me and Alex Flier, we shared a room and we were kind of joking but not really, we both were kind of like okay wow we really have a chance at this,” Saysanasongkham said. “We really need to lock in, we need to do our best and go out there and just have a great day. And I think all of us really wanted that.”
Flier had a hard time sleeping the night before, but described feeling excited at the same time. On the other hand, and without two years of disappointment weighing on her, Saysanasongkham said that she wasn’t nervous at all, citing her faith in the team.
Outside of college, golf is an extremely individual sport. For the first time in most of their careers, the Mustangs have allies on the course. Flier explained a team ritual where they wave to each other in between holes.
“It’s an energy that you pass off to your teammate. Good vibes that you’re sending their way for their next shot. That act of passing on energy has been very helpful and I didn’t realize that it would be that helpful when I first started,” Flier said.
Saysanasongkham said it made a difference for her on the last day.
“We always have to wave at our teammates and even if we had a bad hole just keep the energy up,” Saysanasongkham said. “Alex was playing behind me and just doing that throughout just trying to keep the energy up, I think really helped as well.”
Winning the championship
Saysanasongkham was the first player on her team to finish. The Mustangs had only maintained their two stroke lead, so Saysanasongkham tried to be stoic for her team.
“Honestly, I was a little bit nervous, but I tried not to show it and tried to cheer my teammates on as they finished,” Saysanasongkham said. “I knew if they saw me nervous, they would think it’s wow, it’s really close, and I don’t want them to think like that.”
Flier was next to finish, and she joined Saysanasongkham anxiously watching her team. She described feeling so excited and nervous that she was shaking. She also said she wasn’t sure if Saysanasongkham was anxious, indicating that she hid her nerves well.
The two freshmen watched as Koong carded a 70, who described being confident going into the last day because of how well she knew the course.
Yoo was the last to finish of the scorers, and she got off to a rough start, which she realized around the middle of the course.
“I cannot expect them to carry me,” she said. “I was thinking, okay, I have to do my part at least.”
Yoo’s team anxiously awaited her hole 18, which they each described as tricky, and a place where you can overtake your opponents.
Yoo recalled draining her last putt, and being unsure if they had won. She walked over to her teammates, forgetting to shake hands with her playing partners, and was met with screaming, which is when she knew they had secured the championship.
“We all rushed to her and we all cheered together and hugged each other and it was just an amazing feeling,” Saysanasongkham recalled.
The Mustangs final round turned out to be the third best of the entire tournament.
What’s next for the Mustangs
The Mustangs will find out their opponent and location from the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Selection Show, which will be shown on cable television network the GOLF Channel beginning at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 29.
“It’s just another tournament at the end of the day. It’s another regionals and you have to accept whatever the outcome would be and if you expect too much, too little, it’s just going to change,” Yoo said.
Yoo doesn’t put expectations on the team, but she refused to put a cap on how far the Mustangs could go in the tournament.
“If we just keep doing our thing, and have the same expectations, just going there having fun, I think you never know,” Yoo said. “You might pull something off you never pulled before.”