BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi campus sits on Ward Island off the Gulf of Mexico. Fitting, it seems, since the women’s golf team put itself on an island where nobody else could get to them at the 2023 PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship presented by Chase Sapphire.
Corpus Christi ran away with the Division I team title at Bent Brook Golf Course on May 10, beating Delaware State by 30 shots for its third consecutive team Championship. Meanwhile, the pieces that put them there battled each other for the low medalist honor as Islanders took the top three spots on the leaderboard.
In the end, it was junior Lucie Charbonnier who won out with a final-round 3-under 68 to finish 1-under for the Championship, two shots ahead of freshman teammate Lucia Ramirez (1-over) and senior Maria Beltran (3-over). It is Charbonnier’s second consecutive PWCC title.
“I wanted to beat my teammate. She’s just a freshman and I wanted to have [the Championship] back,” Charbonnier, who is French, said. “I told her we’ll just have to play the best and the best wins. If I would have finished second behind her I still would have been happy.”
Corpus Christi placed four players in the top six to continue its dominant three-year run.
“To have two seniors and the team we have and two players that are coming off of injury, we knew we were a lot more solid coming into this tournament than we were earlier in the spring,” Islanders coach Pat Stephens said. “They just showed up and played. It was exciting to watch.”
As were his top three finishers.
“They wanted to prove something,” Stephens continued. “We haven’t done what we should’ve done in the spring. They came up here with the focus to three-peat and to play these venues and this Championship that the PGA puts on, it’s an awesome thing. It’s not just a golf tournament. It’s a learning experience and being here for the third and winning a third is a special thing.”
Khine comes back for second PWCC title
North Carolina Wilmington senior Phu Khine was disappointed that she couldn’t defend her first PWCC title last year. After winning in 2021, Khine had a labrum injury in her shoulder and could not play in 2022.
She returned this year and stayed within striking distance during the first two rounds despite an opening-round 75. She followed the same formula in the final round, staying steady on the back nine at Shoal Creek to shoot even par.
While she did that, Alabama State’s Allycia Gan struggled, making bogeys on 11, 12 and 13 before a triple bogey on 14 sank her chances. That meant Khine’s 3-over 218 was good enough to win over Charlotte’s Kaiyuree Moodley (4-over) and Gan (7-over).
“It means a lot to me to win in general,” Khine said, “but to win the PGA WORKS, it’s for minorities and giving us the opportunity to get these people together in this event. It’s a great honor for me.”
The top three finishers and ties in the Women’s Team or Individual Divisions will be eligible to apply for an exemption into the Epson Tour’s Guardian Championship, Sept. 15-17, at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail’s Capitol Hill – Senator Course in Prattville, Alabama. The Guardian Championship Tournament Committee will review applications and award the exemption.
For more information on the 2023 PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship, visithttps://pgaworkscollegiate.org/.
Charbonnier Lifts A&M-Corpus Christi to 3rd straight PGA WORKS Collegiate Championship
