While Ket Preamchuen’s status with the varsity golf team ran out this past year, the still-KSU student has continued to make her rounds on the links.
Preamchuen earned status on the Symetra Tour, billed as the “road to the LPGA,” after her efforts at the second round of the LPGA Qualifying Tournament last week at the Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, FL.
“For every professional golfer who wants to go to the LPGA tour, everybody has to go to the qualifying school,” Preamchuen said. “There’s three stages. I passed the first stage in California, so last week was the second stage. I didn’t make it through to the last stage, but I got a status for the lower tour for next year.”
Preamchuen competed in a field out 197 players and unfortunately missed the cut after finishing at +15 for the stage. She said the longer course gave her some trouble on day one and day three.
“I had two bogeys and two birdies in the second round, so even par,” Preamchuen said. “But, on the first day—on the longer course—I struggled with my approach shots. That left me having to go up and down, having to chip and one-putt, and that just kind of threw me off.”
While Preamchuen wasn’t in her own game as much as she would have liked, she also had to get acquainted with the higher-caliber field than she was used to.
“Everybody there is playing for status. In college, sometimes players aren’t prepared for tournaments, with homework and things like that,” she laughed.
Despite getting cut, Preamchuen will be eligible to compete in the Symetra Tour starting next year. The Symetra Tour takes the top-20 competitors on its pay list and grants them LPGA status each year. Preamchuen is confident that she will, one way or the other, find her way
closer to her goals.
“I’ll be able to compete in the qualifier again,” she said. “But, if I play well in the (Symetra) tour than I can make it without having to go through the qualfiers again.”
“I am excited. Even though I missed the cut, it was good to make it to the second stage and play with other professionals. From this past week I learned a lot. It was just different from college golf,” Preamchuen said.
