- Women's Porter Cup photo
For
Kan Bunnabodee it was a good day’s work to complete a week-long effort. Bunnabodee put together a solid round of golf on Friday to claim the eighth installment of the Women’s Porter Cup.
The Chonburi, Thailand native fashioned a 3-under par 69 at Niagara Falls Country Club in Lewiston, NY to complete 54 holes in 4-under par 212, three strokes clear of the rest of the 64-player field.
Thirty-six-hole leader
Monet Chun (Richmond Hill, Ontario), Ashley Chow (Toronto),
Chelsea Dantonio (East Aurora, NY), and
Sifat Sagoo (West Lafayette, Ind.) shared second place at 1-under par 215. Chun, whose opening 68 on Wednesday was the low round of the week, closed with a 73. Chow carded a 72 while Dantonio, who started the day four shots off the pace, matched Bunnabodee with a 69.
Nicole Abelar (Manilla) and
Brigitte Thibault (Rosemere, Quebec) were at 216. Katie Li (Basking Ridge, NJ) finished at 217.
Caroline Smith (Inverness, Ill.) was at 218 while
Megan Chou (Los Altos, Calif.) was at 220. Defending champion
Jackie Rogowicz (Yardley, Pa.) tied for 17th at 224.
Bunnabodee, who just completed her sophomore year at Purdue, began the week with low expectations; or rather, no expectations.
“At the start of the week I injured my thumb,” she said. “So I wanted to just play my game and not get focused about winning the tournament, just enjoy my moment at the golf course.”
Bunnabodee started her day tied with Chow, one shot behind Chun. She stumbled at the start, making bogey at the par-4 first, but that turned out to be the only blemish on her scorecard. She birdied the par-4 second and par-5 third, despite windy conditions, conditions that dried out the course from Thursday’s rains and made a crucial par save at the par-4 sixth after she found a greenside bunker with her approach before holing a 25-foot putt for par.
“That was a putt that kind of gave me my momentum back,” she said.
She went on to birdie the par-4 eighth to make the turn in 2-under par 34 and added a birdie at the short par-5 13th on the way in. By that point, she had a three-shot lead and her place at the top of the leaderboard was never in jeopardy.
Chun had an up-and-down opening nine and turned in 1-over par 37 before bogeying the 12th to fall three shots behind. She bogeyed two of her first three holes and turned at even par for the tournament and birdied the 10th but couldn’t get any closer.
Dantonio bogeyed two of her first three holes but made a charge from there, playing her next 14 holes in six under par before bogeying the finisher.
Bunnabodee came into the Porter Cup just weeks after her collegiate season ended prematurely. She was part of Purdue team that was part of the NCAA Regional at Baton Rouge which was cancelled with a stroke being played.
“At first I was a little bit sad,” she said, “and (heartbroken) that it got cancelled. But I just thought to myself ‘There is nothing I can control, nothing I can do with that, so it’s like ‘Move on,’ and look forward to (next year at Purdue)."
Bunnabodee who placed second at the Southeast Asian games in 2019, plans to compete in the Southwestern Women’s Amateur in two weeks and then try to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
The golf course played to roughly 6,200 yards with a par of 72. There were 19 sub-par rounds over the course of the week. Bunnabodee, Danotnio, and Sagoo each recorded two.
The list of past champions in this event includes Brooke Henderson, who won it in 2014.
ABOUT THE
The Porter Cup, one of the premier amateur
events in the nation, now has a "sister" event -
The Women's Porter Cup. Starting in 2023, the men's and women's Porter Cup championships are run concurrently with 54 players in each field and alternating tee times. It's been exciting seeing the top players in each division in final pairings on the par-3 18th hole at Niagara Falls CC, with large galleries always appreciative of the rising talent.
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