The Westminster resident, a sophomore at Wake Forest, came into the spring portion of the schedule ranked as high as No. 1 nationally in women’s college golf. But a rough start to the spring — a concussion and subsequent withdraw at one tournament and a 47th-place finish in the next — set her back a little.
However, the 19-year-old got back on track this week in Hawaii as she finished second at the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational.
The winner of the last three CWGA Player of the Year awards shot a 2-under-par 70 in Wednesday’s final round to post a 5-under 211 total, leaving her four behind champion Maddie Szeryk of Texas A&M. Kupcho (pictured) held the outright lead briefly as she was 5 under par for the round through 13 holes, but she bogeyed three of her last five to lose her chance at the title.
Kupcho, who just earned induction into the Sportswomen of Colorado Hall of Fame, now has five top-10 individual finishes to her credit this season, including two wins and a second. She’s ranked seventh in the nation according to Golfweek and eighth by Golfstat. Kupcho sits 18th in the women’s World Amateur Golf Rankings.
Meanwhile, a couple of other Colorado residents joined Kupcho in recording top-five individual finishes in college tournaments on Wednesday. Kala Keltz of Montrose and Morgan Sahm of Centennial tied for fifth place in the ORU/SFA Spring Break Invitational in Dallas as their University of Northern Colorado squad placed second out of 16 teams.
Keltz and Sahm matched 8-over-par 224 totals, ending up six strokes behind co-champions Amanda Lindahl and Sofie Levin, both of Eastern Kentucky.
As a team, UNC notched its best showing of the season. The Bears (906 for three rounds) finished 11 behind winner Eastern Kentucky.
ORU/SFA Spring Break Invitational
March 13-15, 2017 (final) in Dallas
2. (out of 16 teams) Northern Colorado 314-296-296–906
5. Kala Keltz 79-71-74–224
5. Morgan Sahm 78-73-73–224
10. Baile Winslow 76-76-76–228
38. Christina Ferreira 81-76-79–236
38. Marisa Hisaki 85-78-73–236
Also
74. Coloradan Sydney Gillespie, Creighton 86-79-85–250