Bobcats advance to NCAA Regionals for first time since 2016

The Texas State Women’s Golf team dominated the Sun Belt Conference Championships en route to the Bobcats first conference championship since 2016.

After placing in second place in the past two tournaments, Head Coach Par Nilsson was thrilled to finally capture the elusive championship.

“It means a lot, obviously,” Nilsson said. “That is the goal every year to win a championship. We talked about it as a team, obviously. Since I’ve been here, we have been second twice [at the Sun Belt Championships,] so it was really nice to finally win one.”

The Bobcats didn’t just celebrate a team championship however.

Graduate senior Hailey Jones became the first Texas State since Sasikarn Somboonsup in 2017 to win the individual championship.

“It was really cool,” Jones said. “It was also really nice to be surrounded by your favorite people. It wasn’t really a goal going into it. You just want to win the team championship, so the individual championship is not really on your mind. Just make it a match and win stroke play as much as possible.”

Jones dominated the course winning the championship shooting five-under par while senior Junia Gabasa placed in the top five shooting two-over par. Both players were named to the Sun Belt All Conference Team.

Along with Yvonne Chamness, Matilda Svahn, Fia Lindblom and Carla Bourdeaux, the team pushed through for a dominating performance all around.

“The whole tournament, everything just clicked really well,” Nilsson said. “It was all just a good trip. The chemistry, the team culture, it was really good. Everybody was pulling the same way. It was very obvious that the five that were playing in the stroke play were creating a lot of momentum. We won stroke play by 16 strokes, Hailey won the individual championship and in match play we didn’t lose a match. It just showed how positive everything was. It was just a really good week.”

Despite winning the stroke play by 16 strokes, the Bobcats had to play another round of golf under a new format.

With past years ending at stroke play, Sun Belt introduced match play at the Golf Championships where the top four teamscompete in a playoff to determine the conference champion.

To prepare, Texas State not only played in match play events twice during the spring season but also competed with one another during the fall as well.

For Jones, what separates stroke play from match play is the aggressiveness of the play.

“The difference is that you are playing more aggressively,” Jones said. “You want to make a birdie on almost every hole which makes it fun. You are not trying to play safe unless your opponent is in the water. For me, I’m playing super aggressive and trying to make as many birdies as possible.”

The Bobcats rolled through the semifinals over Old Dominion 3-1-1 before taking on Georgia Southern in the championship round.

Jones defeated her opponent 6&5 while Svahn defeated her opponent 4&2 to put Texas State up 2-0.

Gabasa defeated her opponent 3&2 on the 16th hole to seal the championship in an emotional win for the entire team.

“It was just one of those weeks where everything was going in the right direction,” Jones said. “Me and [Coach Nilsson] had been working on a couple of things throughout the year and everything started to click. The putts were falling, [Coach] helped me on the course with the driving it off the tee when I wanted to lay back and hit three wood which made a difference. Then on the last day, the putts were still falling, and I was hitting some good shots.”

good shots.” One of the keys to the Bobcats success was their ability to continuously drive the ball off the tee and into the greens.

“[Jones] ball striking was so good that week that it was not that hard to score that well,” Nilsson said. “So many long strike drives are going to be good on any course that it doesn’t matter what the holes are like if you just hit it good enough. Off the tee the whole team was really good as well as into the greens. With putting, you never know because it can be pretty streaky. Sometimes they drop and sometimes they don’t so it was really cool to see so many putts starting to drop. But all of our players were really good off the tee.”

Though each golf course plays differently, Nilsson noted that they didn’t make any changes to their strategy but rather focus on what they had been doing all year.

“We talked about strategy on every course, but we didn’t do anything different [on Lakewood Course],” Nilsson said. “It was more of doing what we have been doing all year. Keeping track of the wind, making sure you know how far it is to the [bunkers] and the water. We prepare for the postseason all year long. We try to go down to that part of the country to play and get used to those conditions.”

Now the Bobcats will try to make history in Bryan-College Station to become the first ever Bobcat golf team to make it to nationals.

“What helped us play really well in Alabama was having fun and relaxing,” Jones said. “We just have to go in there like it is a regular tournament and not see it as anything else. Just having fun, supporting each other and taking it shot by shot.”