TEEING OFF: Princeton University women’s golfer Thanana Kotchasanmanee follows through on a shot at the NCAA Championships in late May at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. to cap her freshman season for the Tigers. Kotchasanmanee placed 12th at the tournament, the highest finish at the event for any golfer from the Ivy League. Princeton’s Kelly Shon took 37th in 2013, the previous best finish for an Ivy golfer. Kotchasanmanee went on to play at the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. earlier this month. (Photo by Todd Dexter, provided courtesy of Princeton Athletics)
By Justin Feil
Coming to Princeton University last fall was an adjustment for Thanana Kotchasanmanee.
Not that anyone could tell on the golf course.
Kotchasanmanee made it look easy in a year in which she is already the highest achieving golfer in program history. And she was only a freshman.
“It was something that I didn’t really expect,” said Kotchasanmanee, who hails from Chiang Mai, Thailand. “But at the same time, there is room for hope. There’s a chance for me to be in this position.”
Kotchasanmanee is highly motivated to prove herself. At every little turn, she’s found a source of inspiration. Coming to Princeton was another one of those chances.
“It was an opportunity that I didn’t really get,” said Kotchasanmanee. “It was kind of one of the goals that I really wanted to prove to my society, especially Thai people, that you can do golf and also study at the same time. I feel like Princeton is probably the best institution for me to prove to them that you not only can have golf in your hand, but you also have the ability to be studying and improving golf at the same time.”
So far, so good. The Thailand native who attended Darlington School in Georgia for four years was on the preseason radar, but it would have been hard to anticipate her doing this well. She was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Ivy Player of the Year, the first Princeton player ever to do so. But she did plenty of things others haven’t for the Tigers.
Kotchasanmanee won the Ivy League Tournament as she carded a four-over 220 in the three-round event at the famed Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, two strokes better than Harvard’s Lucy Yuan. She finished her college season in 12th place at the NCAA Championships, firing a three-under 285 in the event held at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. It’s the highest finish at the event for any golfer from the Ivy League. Princeton’s Kelly Shon finished 37th in 2013, the previous best finish for an Ivy competitor.
“I would say incredible,” said Kotchasanmanee, who was later named as an honorable mention All-American by Golfweek Magazine. “It was unexpected. The course was hard. But I’ll say that I have had some good experience playing with really high level people. There were student-athletes who were also pretty much in the same situation. Some practice more than me and I think it was something unexpected, but at the same time, I was doing my best.”
Kotchasanmanee reached the NCAAs by co-medaling at the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional by carded a six-under 204. By tying for low individual honors with a woman from a team qualifier, she earned the only individual berth into the NCAAs out of the region.
Kotchasanmanee did play one more significant tournament after the NCAA Championships. Earlier this month, she joined the sport’s top professionals at the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. She didn’t advance past the second round, but just being there was a big step.
“I watched Nelly Korda, the major winner, she won and I saw her be really calm, and confident and she’s very chill in every shot that she hit and that’s very impressive,” said Kotchasanmanee, who totaled a 10-over 152, missing the cut by six strokes. “I was thinking maybe I could adopt some of that kind of mentality into my golf game.”
Kotchasanmanee qualified for the elite event in the middle of the Princeton season when she won a U.S. Open Qualifier held at Springfield Golf & Country Club in Virginia. It was a long time coming.
“It was kind of expected because it was my fifth qualifier, because I’ve been trying to qualify throughout during high school and then I finally made it during the fifth year,” said Kotchasanmanee. “It was kind of like an accomplishment that I’ve been really wanting to do. I really wanted it before and then when I finally did it, it was a bit of relief and at the same time I really wanted to do well in an actual tournament. It was incredible.”
Kotchasanmanee is looking forward to a less hectic summer after a busy school year. She’ll play in the Canadian Women’s Amateur in July, but otherwise it’ll be mostly practice back home in Thailand. Five years ago, though, she asked her parents about the chance to leave the country to go to boarding school in the U.S. in hopes of playing in college to pursuer her ultimate dream of playing in the LPGA.
“I just want to explore more parts of the world and I really want to improve myself,” said Kotchasanmanee. “So I decided to ask my mom’s permission if we can find a high school for me to practice golf and also study at the same time.”
Kotchasanmanee’s time at Darlington helped to prepare her for the rigors of Princeton University and she also saw her golf game improved. She began working with swing coach Ken Kim as a sophomore in high school.
“I’ll say I’m giving him the credit because my swing has changed a lot from back then to now,” said Kotchasanmanee. “It’s been improving so much.”
Her improvements continued through her first year at Princeton. While she adjusted to the course load and the challenges that many freshmen also encounter, she also found her game growing. She’s been able to create time to practice at the Springdale Golf Club while pursuing her professional dream.
“The practice facility offers me a very short time to travel to the course and then me getting more time to practice, instead of wasting time traveling to the course, that’s one of the keys that kind of improved me because golf needs a lot of time to practice,” said Kotchasanmanee. “And for me, spending time practicing is kind of like relieving my stress from school too. Having more engagement with golf, it’s already helping me so much improve myself. And I can see that I can improve some my golf swing and then I’ll be ready for an LPGA tour.”
She continues to work to develop her overall game. She saw improvements this year that resulted in lower scores.
“What I’ve been improving, I think it’s more like my approach game,” said Kotchasanmanee. “I have more greens in regulation. So I have more control on my shot to the green. I will say that that’s a lot of improvement I have been seeing throughout the past year coming out of high school. But there’s more room to improve from other aspects.”
One is how she approaches the game and all the things that a college student in the Northeast has to deal with through a year. She has tried to maximize her practice time and use it efficiently.
“I used to be very perfectionist and I think I am still a perfectionist sometime but sometimes an error can happen so I just gotta let things go with the things that I cannot control,” said Kotchasanmanee. “I’ll say especially the weather and during the winter that I could not control that, and I just try my best to adapt to that weather and then try to practice as much as I can for the winter so coming out of winter I would be improving, and be better than what
I’ve experienced during my first year.”
Kotchasanmanee has a better understanding of what to expect from college and from Princeton. That should help her focus on improving her game. It’s a scary proposition for opponents, but she is determined to be more consistent next year as she eyes the sort of development she’ll need for a professional future.
“I would like to have a lower scoring average because right now there’s a couple outliers during at the beginning of the spring season that I shot a couple times over par, and I kind of expect myself to shoot lower,” said Kotchasanmanee. “I just want my scoring average to be lower.”