Pimkwan Chookaew (above) said she just wanted to have fun on Wednesday. Easier said than done. 

The Iowa State senior-to-be took a three-shot lead into the final round of the 101st Women’s State Amateur at the Wakonda Club. 

“I was really nervous,” Chookaew said. “I was worrying a lot. I felt a lot of pressure.” 

Her Iowa State teammate, Keeley Marx, was responsible for a lot of that pressure. Marx took the lead on the back nine, Chookaew drew even on the 17th hole and then prevailed on the second hole of their sudden-death playoff after Marx lipped out a four-foot par putt on the 16th green. 

Chookaew was a wire-to-wire winner, showing that she beat those nerves as well as a quality field. The champion broke par all three days, shooting a 1-under-par 71 Wednesday to go with previous rounds of 69 and 70. 

Marx, the runner-up for a second straight year, shot a final-round 68 that matched the lowest score of the championship. 

“She was really fighting,” Chookaew said of Marx. “It was amazing to play with her. I had never played with her in a tournament before. The way she performed made me so proud of her.” 

On Tuesday, Iowa State Coach Christie Martens predicted a victory by Chookaew would give her a lot of momentum heading into the fall season. Pimkwan also reached the quarterfinals of the Women’s Western Amateur this summer, and looks poised for a strong final season at Iowa State. 

Her victory included a nice little bonus – an exemption into the 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur. She just missed qualifying for this year’s championship and settled for alternate status. Just one more reason why Chookaew was still excited after the trophy presentation. 

“My heart is still beating right now,” said the new champion. 

Chookaew becomes the fourth Iowa State player in the last six years to win Iowa’s prestigious title. Joy Chou won in 2020 and 2021, and her sister, Rudy, took top honors in 2022. 

Shannyn Vogler, who was trying to become the third straight University of Iowa golfer to win the title, shot a final-round 71 and was third, three shots back. Vogler was a runner-up to Drake’s Erika Holmberg in this year’s IGA Women’s Match Play Championship. 

Nichakorn Pinprayoon made it three Cyclones in the top four after a final-round 69 put her at 215. Maura Peters of Iowa was fifth, shooting a closing 72 for a 220 total. Peters had 10 birdies over the final two rounds.

Chloe Bolte of Sumner also had an impressive showing, closing with an even-par 72 to place sixth at 221.Bolte became the third golfer in Iowa history to win four straight state high school individual championships this June, joining Sharon Fladoos of Dubuque and Jessie Sindlinger of Charles City. She will be a freshman at Missouri State this fall, playing for Iowa native Kevin Kane. 

Tish Boothe (right) of Des Moines was the wire-to-wire in the Open Division of the championship. Boothe, who shot 75-77-75, finished six shots in front of runner-up Julie Buerman of Cedar Rapids (75-79-79). 

Wakonda, traditionally regarded as one of Iowa’s most challenging layouts, hosted the State Women’s Amateur for the first time in 36 years, and the fifth time overall. The first two championships, won by Elizabeth Curtis of Clinton in 1926 and Phyllis Otto in 1940, were contested in match play. 

The three medal-play events over Wakonda’s rolling hills show how much the women’s game has improved. 

Corkey Nydle, a women’s golf pioneer in Iowa and a member of the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame, won the 1965 title.Then a 72-hole event, Nydle averaged 83.2 strokes a round and broke 80 just once, a third-round 78 that erased a seven-shot deficit. 

The championship returned in 1989 and Ann Vandermillen of Dubuque won with a 54-hole score of 235 (79-77-79). The tournament’s low round was a 75. 

This year’s tournament, dominated by college players, shows the game has improved leaps and bounds. There were 12 subpar rounds posted in the three days of competition – two on Monday, six on Tuesday and four on Wednesday. This year, the top 13 players finished with scores better than Vandermillen posted in her 1989 win at Wakonda. This year’s top four finishers completed the championship under par. 

Chookaew, who didn’t have her first bogey of the championship until the 27th hole, had just four of them over the 54-hole competition. But one of them came on the first hole Wednesday. A birdie followed, then came another bogey. But another birdie at No. 4 got her back to even par for the day, and she was a picture of consistency the rest of the way. She had 13 pars and a birdie the rest of the way. 

After playing Wakonda’s four par-5 holes in 6 under par over the first two rounds, she played them even par Wednesday. 

“I didn’t make a lot of birdies,” she said. “I didn’t go deep under par. But I was still under par. As my coach (Martens) told me, “You played great today.”

Marx made a serious charge with five birdies in a nine-hole stretch starting at No. 7. That last birdie in that string, at the par-5 15th, gave her a one-shot lead over Chookaew. 

But that lead evaporated when Marx didn’t get up-and-down to save par at the par-3 17th. Both players parred the final hole of regulation, and the playoff returned to 18. Both parred again. The day ended on the 16th green when Marx lipped out a four-foot par putt. 

Chookaew had survived nerves, and a tremendous charge by her teammate, to get her name on the Fladoos Trophy. 

“It was a great learning experience,” Pimkwan said. “Hopefully I’ll be better at handling it next time.”

Complete Results

Pimkwan Chookaew’s (above) success on the Wakonda Club’s four par-5 holes have her on top of the leaderboard heading into Wednesday’s final round of the 101st Iowa Women’s Amateur.

The senior-to-be at Iowa State is six under par on those par-5s, with four birdies and an eagle. Her rounds of 69-70 give her a three-shot cushion over Cyclone teammate Keeley Marx and Iowa’s Shannyn Vogler heading into the final round.

Marx, who has two seasons of college golf remaining, shot a 3-under-par 69 after an opening 73. Vogler, who has one more season with the Hawkeyes, shot Tuesday’s lowest score, a 68.

Keeping with the college theme, Northern Iowa’s Anna Jensen (73-71) starts the final round in fourth place, five strokes back. Drake’s Erika Holmberg shot a second-day 71 and is six off the pace.

Chookaew’s consistency has also helped her climb to the top of the leaderboard. She didn’t make her first bogey of the championship until her 27th hole, and has just two in the first 36 holes of competition.

“I think she’s really matured as a player,” said Iowa State Coach Christie Martens, who was at Wakonda watching Chookaew and her teammates on Tuesday.

That maturity shows in Pimkwan’s approach to par-5s.

“A lot of it is being able to know when to attack,” Martens said. “When it makes sense. She really hits it straight and is adequately long. She’s not a real bomber or anything. I think it really comes down to her golf IQ, and her process of just understanding the game.”

Chookaew birdied three of Wakonda’s four par-5s on Monday, including the 13th. That’s the hole she eagled Tuesday, playing smart and taking advantage of the opportunity in front of her.

“I had to lay up on that hole off the tee,” said Pimkwan, who hit a 5-wood to get her in good position.

She then hit another 5-wood to within four feet of the hole.

“That was really nice.” she said.

Marx, a runner-up in the Iowa Women’s Amateur in 2024, said her teammate is a very good iron player.

“She has great composure on the golf course,” Marx said. “”She’s an amazing player, an amazing person. That shows in her golf game as well. She’s really dedicated and is a hard worker. That’s why she’s out there playing great golf.”

Martens has noticed that hard work, too, and it’s already paid off this summer. Chookaew made it to the quarterfinals of the Women’s Western Amateur in Royal Oak, Mich., before falling to Michigan State graduate Brooke Biermann, 1 up. A victory on Wednesday would be another big step.

“She played great at the Western,” Martens said. “To finish off her summer here would be an awesome jumping off point (into the fall season) for her.”

Chookaew considers the competitive environment of a state amateur invaluable to her growth as a player.

“I’m happy to be the leader,” she said. “I just have to go out and play my normal round, and play fun golf. I just have to stay patient.”

Marx is also rounding into shape for the fall season at Iowa State.

“My game is pretty consistent at the moment,” she said. “I’m very happy with it. Not too many wayward shots or anything like that. It’s a fairway-green kind of situation at the moment.”

Marx knows she has some catching up to do, but she wants to stick to her gameplan. “Just try and enjoy it,” she said. “The more I enjoy it, the better I play.”

Vogler will be trying to become the third straight Hawkeye golfer to win the prestigious Iowa title, following the footsteps of Kaitlyn Hanna and Paula Miranda. Vogler was a runner-up in the IGA Women’s Match Play Championship, losing on the 22nd hole to Holmberg’s birdie.

“That was a bummer,” she said.

Vogler said her driving has held her back at times.

“That’s the only thing that’s been keeping me from getting more birdies, because I’ve been putting myself out of position off the tee,” Shannyn said. “I’ve worked on my iron play a lot over the summer, and that’s definitely shown because I’m hitting it closer.”

Six birdies on Tuesday, four of them on the back nine, have Vogler in a contending position heading into the final round. Only her Iowa teammate, Maura Peters, had more second-round birdies. Peters made seven of them in her second-round 70.

Jensen is the reigning IGA Woman Player of the Year. In addition to her marathon victory in the IGA Match-Play championship, Holmberg and Jensen also won the 2025 IGA Women’s Four Ball.

Holmberg had a rocky start to this tournament, making a triple-bogey 6 on No. 2 and a bogey two holes later. But she’s rallied since then.

“One thing I try to tell myself is that you’re never quite out of the fight,” Holmberg said. “I like to be a come-from-behind type of player. I proved to myself that I could come back from that.”

Tish Boothe of Des Moines leads the Open Division after rounds of 75-77. Julie Buerman (75-79) is two shots back and Geri Huser sits in third (76-79).

Complete Results

Pimkwan Chookaew made her Iowa Women’s Amateur golf debut a memorable one on Monday.

The Thailand native and senior-to-be at Iowa State shot a bogey-free 3-under-69 at the Wakonda Club to take a two-shot lead over 2019 champion Paige Hoffman (pictured above) of West Des Moines. One of her Cyclones teammates, Nichakorn Pinprayoon, is alone in third, three shots behind, heading into Tuesday’s second round.

“It’s really nice to do that,” said Chookaew of her bogey-free day, which included birdies at the 5th, 13th and 14th holes.“There was nothing really crazy today. I played easy golf.”

Pimkwan Chookaew

Chookaew (right) said she drove the ball well.

“That made me feel confident,” she said.

Asked what part of the game is traditionally her strength, she said it was her putting.

“A lot of people tell me my approach game is really good, but I think my putting is very good,” Chookaew said.

That approach game and putting were spot on Monday. Chookaew hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation. And her ball ended up on the fringe of the only green she missed.

“I enjoyed the course,” Pimkwan said. “It’s really nice here.”

She also carried her own bag over Wakonda’s century-old hills.

“It was quite something,” Chookaew said.

When her college golf career at Northwest Missouri State ended this spring, Hoiffman jumped into the working world.

Though her career is golf-minded – she’s the Director of Development for the Iowa Golf Association – work takes priority over her golf game these days.

“I really wouldn’t say I came into this week with a competitive mindset,” Hoffman said. “It was kind of like, “Let’s go out there, have fun and enjoy it. I don’t get to play as much as I used to. That being said, I was able to attain that mindset for real. I wasn’t just saying it. I actually felt that way.”

Hoffman won this championship in 2019 at Otter Creek in Ankeny, finishing 3 under par with rounds of 71-71-68.

“I really haven’t had a great (Women’s Amateur) since then,” she said. “This is the best I’ve played since winning.”

Paige finished sixth in this championship in 2021 and 2022. A tie for 29th last year at Sunnyside in Waterloo was the only time she dropped out of the Top 20 since her victory. But her lowest round in that five-year stretch was a 74 in the second round in 2022.

Hoffman said “it seems like forever” since her 2019 victory, but the experience of getting to the finish line will do nothing but help her if she’s in the thick of the title chase come Wednesday.

“When you get in those pressure situations, you know you’ve been in them before and you can overcome them,” Paige said.

Pinprayoon had an up-and-down day but ended where she started, at even par. She rallied from a double-bogey at the par-3 2nd hole with three consecutive birdies starting at No. 6. She fell back with three straight bogeys starting at No. 9. But she birdied three of the last four holes, sandwiched around a bogey at the 16th, to get back to even par.

Another shot back after 73s were Keeley Marx, Anna Jensen and Chloe Bolte. Marx, another Cyclone golfer, was the Iowa Women’s Amateur runner-up in 2024. Jensen, the reigning IGA Woman Player of the Year and a two-time IGA Match Play champion, plays for Northern Iowa. Bolte, who joined Sharon Fladoos and Jessie Sindlinger as the only players to win four individual state high school titles in June, will play her college golf at Missouri State. Pettitt plays at South Dakota State.

Tish Boothe of Des Moines and Julie Buerman of Cedar Rapids both shot 75 and are tied for the lead in the Open Division. Geri Huser of Altoona, the reigning IGA Senior Woman Player of the Year, is a shot back.

Complete Results